09/04/2009

Fake electronic security programs represent an increasing threat to internet users, new research has claimed.

According to the Security Intelligence Report study by Microsoft, 'scareware' was increasingly used by scammers in the second half of 2008 who were attempting to con IT users into installing a fake security program.

The report stated that a free scan falsely tells a user that their computer is infected and advises them to pay for protection to be installed.

Often it is a malware, which is ineffective against malicious software and, in some cases, steals people's personal information.

The report showed that Win32/FakeXPA and Win32/FakeSecSen have been detected on more than 1.5 million home computers while Win32/Renos was thought to be on 4.4 million PCs.

Speaking to the AFP, George Stathakopoulos, general manager of the Trustworthy Computing Group at Microsoft, said: 'Rogue security software is the number one threat worldwide.'

A previous report by Microsoft revealed that more than 97 per cent of emails are spam.