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Who killed the fake-antivirus business?

#1 keyboardNinja

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Posted 30 August 2011 - 12:19 PM

Quote

The fake-antivirus business was a big money-maker in the first half of this year. Then, at the end of June, fake-AV products practically disappeared from the web. Was it technology, or does traditional law enforcement deserve the credit?

Full article here: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/who-killed-the-fake-antivirus-business/3832

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#2 booterbotter

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Posted 30 August 2011 - 02:55 PM

Thanks for the update keyboardNinja.
Though rogue software issues decrease dramatically, zero access rootkit and other nasty rootkits are at large.

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#3 cryptodan

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Posted 30 August 2011 - 05:33 PM

Nothing killed the Fake AV Market. They are in remission, and will come back later with a new arsenal of fake av products. Its a campaign to re-infect already cleaned machines and to introduce new attack vectors much like the fake flash player installs and malicious video links that exploit old and outdated flash players.

The Russian Business Network and others like it will make a come back.

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#4 keyboardNinja

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Posted 30 August 2011 - 07:50 PM

@cryptodan, I agree. It's more than likely just a temporary lull.

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#5 killerx525

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Posted 31 August 2011 - 02:30 AM

Gulp

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#6 Required Field

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Posted 31 August 2011 - 09:54 AM

I'd like to think that the drop in reported rogues is due at least in part to those of us who have been educating endusers about the threats and their sources. The FBI and Russian raids probably helped, though...;)

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#7 Eyesee

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Posted 31 August 2011 - 11:40 AM

I noticed a considerable drop off in fake AV's that I am seeing.
Probably the calm before the storm!

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#8 herg62123

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Posted 01 September 2011 - 04:10 AM

Now we need a way to zero out zeroaccess and other rootkits. If that happened we are doing good.

:whistle:

#9 Minh Triet Pham Tran

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Posted 07 January 2012 - 06:09 PM

keyboardNinja, on 30 August 2011 - 12:19 PM, said:

Quote

I don't believe this. There are many new fake-AV distribution websites which they don't know.

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#10 the_patriot11

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Posted 07 January 2012 - 11:47 PM

They didnt say it was wholly erased, but rather no longer the big deal it once was. When it started, a lot of people had problems with them, and they made a fortune, but now, yes there may still be a few out there here and there, theyre no longer making money like they once were and are few and far between-you chances of getting one are rare. Its like people who still use windows 3.1 on their primary OS. The operating system, is in effect dead, kaput gone. Yet, there are still people who use it (and refuse to upgrade) though their hard to find. And the article points out, theres a good chance theyll come back.

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#11 Nicholas R.

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Posted 16 January 2012 - 09:26 PM

Thats nice to hear that they're slowly disappearing off the web. They're so hard to get rid of >.<

Hopefully they don't come back with a vengeance...

#12 Grinler

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Posted 18 January 2012 - 12:07 PM

Actually rogues are starting to come back with a vengeance. As I had said in the past, they were only gone until they could find another method of clearing the credit card payments. Looks like they have figured out a way to do this.

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#13 MalwareWarrior

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Posted 24 January 2012 - 09:25 PM

They aren't as common as they where a while ago, but they most certainly are still a large threat. Speaking of fake-antiviruses, ever heard of SpyVampire? :lol:

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