Wolf in sheepskin: a pest disguised as an antiviral

Great ingenuity is shown by adware, which also uses rootkit technology, which disguises itself as an antivirus in order to sell the dubious quality program it advertises.

According to Panda Software Hungary, an adware called VideoCach has appeared in Hungary in the last few weeks, which could win the first prize of unethical marketing: it mimics a virus infection and directs the desperate victim to a paid “antivirus”.

What makes the adware particularly dangerous is the fact that it uses the infamous rootkit technology that SONY BMG’s knife broke into a year and a half or two ago. However, the creators of the adware have gone a step further than the publisher who has since paid a lot of compensation.

This is because adware generates all sorts of fake virus alerts, in the form of random pop-ups, and openly even opens IE to direct the victim to the side of the anti-phishing virus. After the antivirus is installed and run, it typically identifies harmless cookies as malware or marks registry entries for invalid files as viruses. Of course, the "anti-virus" function costs money

According to Zsolt Sándor, CEO of Panda Software Hungary, the emergence of the new “advertising virus” is not accidental. On the Internet today, news about various virus attacks, big waves of infection, meet; most users know that if they are attacked by a virus, they will need an antivirus. Unfortunately, most of the time knowledge goes this far; and the uninitiated easily choose the wrong solution.

The free online malware scanner available at www.nanoscan.com can help in such cases; either for obtaining a “second opinion” or for complete extermination. If a program is too eager to exterminate for money, at least you can check to see if you are right…