Conficker Causes Rise in Hoax Security Software

This article directly relates to chapter 7. Chapter 7 deals with viruses and other threats to the computer system. Computer owners can take many precautions in order to protect their computers. One of these precautions is installing a virus protection system on their computer. These program can be free, such as AVG, which I use, or the program can cause money, such as Norton, which I used previously. Microsoft says that hoax security software is on the rise and may gain even more momentum and ground. Conflicker is a new virus that has been widely publicized. Consequently, this has scared many people into getting anti-virus software. Therefore, criminals take advantage of these vulnerable people. “Conflicker Causes Rise in Hoax Security Software” is another sad case of internet forgery. It never ends. The amount of people trying to con others on the internet is alarming. Due to the increase in demand for internet protection, criminals are selling protection software that does not exist. Cyber criminals are the worst type of criminals. They prey on the most vulnerable and ignorant of people. Cyber criminals take a lot of information from people. Cyber criminals charge a subscription for this software. The criminal then fires a two-pronged attack on the victim. The criminal gets money from a subscription that is invalid and also they obtain credit card information. The victim can now go into much debt because a criminal has their credit card details. This is a lesson to all of us to be vigilant in doing our due diligence when we give our personal information out on the internet. We all want virus protection software, especially in these times, but we must make sure that we are buying form legitimate sources. It is often difficult to tell which sites/sources are legitimate and which ones are criminal. I suggest only giving out information on well known, trusted sites.

Reference : Skinner, Carrie-Ann. (April 9, 2009). Conficker Causes Rise in Hoax Security Software. Retrieved April 26, 2009 from PC magazine. Website:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/162862/conficker_causes_rise_in_hoax_security_software.html