Tuesday, February 23, 2010

How to get infected while browsing the internet... a DIY guide!

Despite the presence of antivirus software, firewalls and anti-spam software, many people still fall for the sneaky tricks of virus-spreaders online all the time.
Avast - my antivirus software of choice (and it's free!)
AVG - another decent free antivirus program

One of the tricks I have come across of late happens when the webpage that loads, looks exactly like a Windows Explorer window, which (apparently) shows your hard drives, DVD Drives etc.
A fake "scan" then runs on top of this window and alleges that you are infected by millions of viruses and spyware.
The entire "scan" window is a giant hotspot, and at the end of the "scan" you are encouraged to click a link to fix the problem.
If the link is clicked, you then open yourself up to an actual threat, possibly a downloaded script, dodgy website or some other malicious means of infecting your PC.
Nicely done, you fiendish skanks...!

How to get your self into a fix... buying into this nonsense is a great way to get started!

So in order to get you to click on their dodgy links, they first play on the paranoia of being infected.
Once they have convinced the gullible user that they are in fact in some kind of grave danger, the paranoia then drives the user to click anything that promises to make it all better.

So what to do if you think this may have happened to you?
Well if you went ahead and clicked the link, you will no doubt know if you have been infected because you are probably being bombarded by a message along the lines of "Your system is being infecting by serious bad virus", or some other similarly dodgy message.

A key giveaway here is the unusual / incorrect usage / incorrect spelling of the English language - antivirus companies like to uphold a professional image and appearance, by using well constructed sentences, perfect spelling, and by following the general rules of a language.
Virus creators on the other hand, despite their allegedly massive levels of intelligence, cannot seem to grasp the very basics of how one puts a proper sentence together. Spelling too, it seems is beyond their primitive level of understanding.

If you are infected, get yourself a free copy of Avast or AVG fast...

5 comments:

  1. D00d, you should check out Microsoft Security Essentials - it's also free, and apparently scores MUCH better on the safety front than even AVG!

    http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey hey,

    Thx for that - just checked out the site and I am keen to try it out.
    Free is always good... more so if the freebie is actually good as well!

    Just checked out your blog - pretty cool - what's the meaning behind "nospoon"...?

    T

    ReplyDelete
  3. wooo! That's a long story - suffice it to say I'm a big matrix fan (and of the philosophy behind it) 'nospoon' is kind of a summary of that for me.

    I think I should post an explanation about it sometime...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ooooh yes I remember now...

    "There is no spoon" and all that :)
    Ya I loved the 1st one and the 2nd was ok.
    I thought the 3rd one went off at an odd tangent though...

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have used AVG protection for many years, I recommend this anti virus to all of you.

    ReplyDelete


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