Hackers attack anti-virus industry's reputation with scareware
Monday, October 26, 2009
Fake anti-virus software - also called scareware or rogueware - is a wildly successful scam that makes millions of dollars from victims who buy phony anti-virus products. But legitimate AV software also takes a hit from scareware's success.
Trend Micro CEO Eva Chen said the cybercriminals who peddle scareware by infecting user PCs with Trojan downloaders that warn "your PC is infected" are targeting the anti-virus industry's infrastructure and undermining its reputation as an effective tool against malware, according to IDG News Service.
"There are really two industries fighting," Chen said in an interview with IDG News. "The hackers, they are attacking the antivirus industry's infrastructure."
Chen said anti-virus companies like Trend Micro fought back against the proliferation of viruses from hackers with blacklisting of malicious code. This led to anti-virus "bloat," as the software needed to be continuously updated with new detection signatures.
Now, anti-virus companies are moving toward a "whitelisting" approach, which uses reputation-based software to recognize websites that are clean of viruses.
In the battle of cybercriminals and web security companies, the criminals have a revenue stream from scareware that makes them rich and encourages more criminal activity. 
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