The BBC has just published a news story on its website, in which it says that a staggering 40 million computer users have been duped into downloading scareware virus scanners, at a cost of course.
Anti-virus software company Symantec said it had identified 250 versions of scareware, and criminals are thought to earn hundreds of thousands of euros per year.
What exactly is scareware though? We have heard the terms malware, Trojans, viruses and the like, but scareware is different.
Scareware pops up when a person is changing from one site to another. A popup comes across the screen and it is designed to look like something official, perhaps even from Microsoft.
The popup window will tell the user that their computer is infected with a virus and should download, install and of course pay for the software.
It does not end there. The software which you have just downloaded may be loaded with a key logger which remembers what numbers and letters you hit on the keyboard for passwords, bank details and the like.
In extreme cases, the virus may even take over the computer completely and allow the ‘company’ to hack right into your terminal to retrieve any information they want.
They may also contact you and hold you to ransom, telling you that you have to pay a fee in order to get your computer back.
Make no mistake, these things happen and they happen all too often. Unfortunately, for businesses and the home user alike, the only defence against such software is awareness and caution on the part of the user.
It is very easy to fall for these tricks. The popup might even tell you that your anti virus software is out of date, it might be designed in such a way that if you click on the “x” in the top right hand corner, it will lead to the programme being downloaded and installed anyway.
Sources in the industry say that the best way to get rid of these popups if you come across them is to press the Control, Alt and Delete keys to bring up the task manager in your computer and “quit the process” from there.
These people are very clever and the software which they design is also very clever. The first thing to remember is to always stay calm. Don’t click on things randomly in panic. Stop, think, assess and then devise the best way out – which involves bringing up the task manager and quitting the process.
Virus infection can paralyse a business, especially if it is an SME. A computer technician will have to be brought in, he will check the machine, tell you it needs a format. You tell him you can’t lose your data, he asks you if it’s backed up, you reply that no it isn’t. And with that, your PC is carted off for a long, and relatively expensive repair.
It happens in all levels of business and it is a drain. It is unnecessary costs incurred, it is also a loss of productivity. No amount of software can replace human vigilance on this issue. People must realise that a computer can be used as a toy, but if it is being used in business, then one must automatically become much more cautious in the way they deal with things. Stop, think, assess, play it safe. Call someone if you are not sure what to do. And don’t click on any of the boxes that pop up.