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  • 1 March 2010 14:53

Symantec Threat Bulletin: Massive Earthquake in Chile Leads to a Surge of Rogue Antivirus

Symantec issues warning of rogue antivirus web sites exploiting the recent earthquake in Chile

Cyber-scammers are already taking advantage of the massive earthquake that struck near the Chilean city of Concepcion in the early hours of February 27th, 2010. The quake occurred near the coast and tsumani warnings were issued for many countries bordering on the Pacific ocean. Unfortunately, hackers have been quick to pounce on the opportunity to exploit those wanting to find out more about this major news event.

Cybercriminals are poisoning web searches for popular search terms such as “Chile Earthquake”. The poisoned listings which result from these search terms are leading users to rogue antivirus web sites which attempt to perform fake antivirus scans. After the fake scan is complete, or if users try to navigate away from the page, they are offered the opportunity to download antivirus files. These files are being detected by Symantec as the fake antivirus programs Trojan.FakeAV or VirusDoctor.

Damage to computers and wallets as a result of this disaster has been averted by Symantec’s IPS detections, which have effectively prevented the fake scan pages from being loaded onto computers.

Please let me know if you’d like to discuss this further with a Symantec security expert, and I will be happy to put you in touch.

Media Contact:

Jasmin Athwal

Max Australia

+61 2 9954 3492

Jasmin.Athwal@maxaustralia.com.au