Cybercriminals making a fortune from fake security software

A report released by Panda Security on Wednesday pointed to an increase in the proliferation of fake security software, otherwise known as "rogueware." This class of malware convinces people that their computers are infected with a malware, essentially scaring them into paying for security software that purports to fix the problem.

One common technique used by the perpetrators of such rogueware appears to be the manipulation of search engine results in order to place sites peddling these malware high on the result list of various search terms. 

The numbers are staggering--at the end of 2008, Panda Security says that it has detected almost 55,000 rogueware samples. The company expects the figure to top 637,000 new rogueware samples by the end of Q3, or a 1- fold jump in less than a year. In addition, Panda thinks that some 35 million computers are infected by rogueware every month, generating "an insane amount of money" for the perpetrators.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at InformationWeek

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