This summer?s crackdown on Russian computer scareware companies has virtually shut the fake security software business down?for now. For those of you who don?t know, scareware (or rogue anti-spyware) is a type of malicious software that tricks people into thinking they have an infection. The software claims to find security risks and asks for cash to fix them. If you pay (sometimes as much as $129), the ?problem? temporarily goes away. If you don?t pay, your computer will be bombarded with pop-ups warning you about the problem and making your computer virtually impossible to use. How do people get this malicious software on their computers in the first place? Usually by visiting untrusted web sites or clicking on advertisements that redirect to web pages that pretend to be an online malware scanner. It?s a multi-million dollar industry that is run, for the most part, out of Russia where scammers are out of reach of law enforcement.
At ESG, we?ve been fighting against these scareware providers for years. It?s an ongoing digital arms race. Every time malware makers come up with a new, sophisticated way to infect computers with their scareware, we come up with a way to remove it. It?s the heart of our business. This summer, we got some big time help.
In June, the FBI coordinated a series of raids in the US and 11 other countries to shut down one of the biggest scareware gangs. Read the following articles on the anti-cyber crime effort:
http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/june/cyber_062211/cyber_062211
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13887152
Two months after FBI launched raids in 12 countries targeting the makers of rogue anti-spyware programs, we can report that the takedown has been a home run. It almost single-handedly dried up the scareware industry. How do we know? Quite honestly, our business has dropped off pretty dramatically. People came to us when they got infected with scareware and in the two months since the FBI raids, our new subscriptions from scareware victims is down 60%. Here?s a chart showing our new subscriptions over the last few months. Notice the huge drop that started at the end of June.
Figure 1. New SpyHunter subscriptions down 60% since the FBI captured and shut down several cyber crime rings across a dozen countries.
The FBI raids cut off the ability for the scareware makers and distributers to get paid and when they can?t get paid by their victims, they shrivel up and go away. But don?t take our word for it, check Google Trends. Here are two charts showing how often people have searched for ?Vista Security 2012? and ?XP Antispyware 2012? ? these are the names of what USED to be very widespread fake security programs. Look at the drop off in late June. It?s dramatic.
Figure 2. Traffic for ?Vista Security 2012? and ?XP Antispyware 2012? search terms dropped considerably since June 2011.
So why are we praising an action that slashed our new subscriptions by more than half? Why are we happy that fewer people are coming to us for help? A couple things. First, we hate cybercriminals as much as the victims and the law enforcement agencies that hunt them down. And second, you?ll notice at the beginning of this post we said the fake security software business has been shut down?for now. Sadly, cybercriminals and scareware makers are smart. They?re very good at what they do. And we have no doubt that sometime soon, they?ll be back. They?ll figure out another way to get their scareware out and to get paid by their victims. And when they do, we?ll be waiting for ?em.
This entry was last updated on 08/18/11 and posted on 08/17/11. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.jeanne d arc zeppelin madison square garden highlander topaz topaz swansea
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