Beware: The Internet Scareware Threat that will Hold Your Files to Ransom

If you’re a heavy Internet user you will no doubt be familiar with fake warning messages that pop up telling you that your PC is infected with all manor of nasties, and the only solution is to download some piece of software from a dodgy website at an exorbitant cost. Such programs are of course scams, rarely having a purpose other than to part you with your cash, and can sometimes even act as a Trojan infection to install viruses on your otherwise clean PC. These types of programs are called Scareware: they are designed to scare you in to installing them on your machine.

One of the latest Scareware programs identified by security researchers is called Antivirus2009, which informs the unsuspecting user that corrupt files have been detected on their PC. They are then advised to download a tool called FileFix Professional to fix the corrupt files, but in reality neither of these tools are doing what they claim. In fact, Antivirus2009 encrypts documents and fileson the infected PC so that they can no longer be read. FileFix will decrypt the files, but only after the user has paid $50 for the software, meaning that in effect the authors of the software are holding people’s documents and files to ransom.

The Windows Advisor’s advice? Don’t download software from websites that you don’t trust, and especially web pop-ups that claim to have detected problems with your PC, and always ensure that you keep your antivirus and antispyware programs up to date.