ANTI-VIRUS

Protecting Yourself from Scareware Viruses

Nearly two thirds of the viruses that infect most networks fall into the category of “Scareware.” These are highly malicious programs that take control of your computer and masquerade as legitimate Antivirus software, often displaying popups that warn you of numerous infections.

The goal of this type of virus is to get you to purchase or “renew” a subscription to their software. Once you pay, you get nothing – the subscription is bogus. Worse, the virus remains active on your machine and your credit card information is now in the hands of cyber criminals.

Scareware often comes bundled with other viruses, often with password stealing and remote access capabilities. We’ve been tracking infections to determine how these malicious programs get onto our clients’ computers, and the majority of them are installed while a user is browsing the web, often on video sharing websites.

There are three important things you can do to protect yourself and your company from these types of viruses:

1. Be vigilant when browsing the internet, avoiding unnecessary websites (for example, video streaming or social networking sites). Run a popup blocker and talk to us about web and content filtering options.
2. Make sure that your Antivirus is functioning correctly. Pay attention to any popup messages that appear and let PCS Group know immediately, even if the problem appears to resolve itself.
3. At the first sign of a Scareware infection, cease all work and immediately call PCS. DO NOT TRY TO CLOSE THE WINDOWS YOURSELF. Often times what looks like an active infection, is simply a web browser popup crafted to look like the virus is already installed on your machine. In reality, the virus requires that you click on something to initialize the infection; this includes the X to close the window.    

KASPERSKY