# Microsoft targets rogue anti-virus program



## Glaswegian (Sep 16, 2005)

Microsoft has taken aim at a rogue anti-virus program called Internet Antivirus Pro, which has been a growing problem since April.

The company's latest update to its Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, (MSRT) released Tuesday, adds detection for this dubious program, which masquerades as security software.

Like all of these rogue anti-virus products, Internet Antivirus Pro tries to trick victims into installing the software. It pops up a fake warning message and then pretends to scan the victim's computer. But instead of scanning for malicious software, Internet Antivirus downloads password-stealing software that looks for FTP user names and passwords, presumably so that its creators can install their software on web servers.

Internet Antivirus installs a browser component that displays fake messages, and it also pops up a fake Windows Security Center, Microsoft said in a blog posting.

The software has also used the names General Antivirus and Personal Antivirus.

Rogue anti-virus software has been on the rise over the past year and was among the most-detected unwanted software on Windows PCs during the second half of last year, Microsoft said in its recent Security Intelligence Report.

Two rogue Trojans, Renos and Zlob, were found on more than 8 million infected machines, Microsoft said. They use similar techniques to get installed on victims PCs.


http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=117249


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