Microsoft report details new rogueware attacks

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Rogue security software increased significantly in the second half of 2008, according to the latest volume of Microsoft's semi-annual security intelligence report, released today.

Two rogue families, Win32/FakeXPA and Win32/FakeSecSen, were detected on more than 1.5 million computers by Microsoft software, making them among the top 10 threats in the second half of the year, the software company said.

Microsoft detected Win32/Renos, a threat that is used to deliver rogue security software, on 4.4 million unique computers, an increase of 66.6 percent over the first half of 2008, the company reported.

The software company said its new report offers more data on document file format attacks, different types of malware affecting home and business computers and phishing.

"We continue to see an increase in the number of threats and complexity of those threats designed to implement crime at a variety of levels online," said Vinny Gullotto, general manager of the Microsoft Malware Protection Center.

Gullotto said Microsoft sees cybercriminals "increasingly going after vulnerabilities in human nature rather than software."

Rogue security software, also known as "scareware," lures users into paying for protection that is actually malware offering little or no real protection and is often designed to steal personal information.

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