Fake antivirus programs appear to be adopting some of the money-raising tactics of more threatening ransom malware, security company Fortinet's latest threat report has found.

The most prevalent malware variant during August was TotalSecurity W32/FakeAlert.LU!tr, a malicious program that masquerades as antivirus software in order to sell worthless licenses for non-existent malware. On its own it accounted for 37.3 percent of all malware threats detected by the company during the month.

Unlike standard fake antivirus programs, however, the new version of TotalSecurity takes the ruse a stage further by preventing any applications other than a web browser to run, claiming they are "infected." The user is invited to have the infection cleaned by buying the bogus TotalSecurity product.

Adding an extra layer of sophistication to its arsenal -- and no doubt aware how quickly bogus antivirus software is blocked by genuine security products -- TotalSecurity can now vary the downloads ...

How to Avoid Rogue Security Software

What can you do to help prevent the spread of rogues and make sure that rogue software vendors stop profiting from their unscrupulous business? Follow these tips below to tell what’s real and what’s not when it comes to security software – and share them with friends and family who may be vulnerable to rogue threats.

What’s a Rogue – And Why Do You Need to Know?

You may not be familiar with the term ‘rogue software’ but there’s a very good chance that you or someone you know either has experienced it, or will in the near future. As malware writers inundate the web with rogue anti-malware programs, this kind of trickery is becoming more and more common, and now poses one of today’s greatest security challenges to computer users.. Let’s take some facts and figures on these fake anti-malware programs into consideration:

• In the end of December, the U.S. FBI released its first public alert on scareware, warning computer users to be wary of pop-ups that report security problems on their PC’s.
• The estimated dollar loss to victims that this type of malware has resulted in, according to the FBI: $150 million.¹
• According to Lavasoft Malware Labs analysts, the number of ...