[NPMUG] Excellent writeup on persuasive malware

[Charles Firth]

Worth reading to get an idea of how clever fake "Antivirus" software  
can be. Something I recommend you share with anyone who is less  
familiar with how things work.

It details the process used by the software "XP Antivirus"  - and how  
it looks a LOT like regular Windows error messages and screens (when  
in fact it's evil incarnate and wants your credit card). I've  
personally seen this installed on several machines, and wish I could  
find some way to convince people to be more suspicious.

This is not "obviously a bad software package" - it looks very very  
real.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/22/anatomy_of_a_hack/

Right now we don't have anything like this for OSX (The closest is the  
fake Quicktime codec trojan) but it's coming. So the Conclusion and  
the author's advice is still very sound for Mac users.

Charles

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