ComputerSecure Blog

As I mentioned in a previous reply to a post, I had more to say about WOT than I managed to include in one post.

For one thing, I wanted to mention that the blog at WOT currently has a lot of discussion about keeping safe when shopping online.

That’s a thing to be aware about at this time of year.

And another thing was that the news page at WOT is very informative about what kinds of threats are out there on the interwebs.

Here is an exerpt from WOT’s news: my reasons for mentioning it are below.

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Epidemic of Fake Anti-malware Products Threatens Internet Users

The latest trend of security threats against Internet users employs software products which pretend to be security tools that help rid your computer of spyware. In a new video series, WOT shows what can happen to your computer if you visit a risky or dangerous site. In the first of these video presentations, you will see examples of online scams and malware threats in action, satisfying your curiosity while keeping your computer safe.

New York, NY September 17, 2008
Fake anti-malware software, marketed under hundreds of different names, scares users by giving false spyware alarms and then tries to deceive them into paying for removal of non-existing malware. The goal of these criminal software makers is to make people pay for the “full” version of their bogus anti-malware product and to collect financial information that can be used for phishing.

The fake security product often installs malicious software to download itself or executes other unwanted actions. The user is shown fake messages such as, “Warning! Your computer is infected with spyware”, followed by a promise that the chargeable version of the tool will remove this non-existing threat. These tools are promoted using hundreds of different names, such as XP Antivirus 2008 and XP Antivirus 2009.

“Web of Trust offers Internet users a common platform for sharing their experience with websites and companies, making Web 2.0 work for a safer Internet,” said CEO Esa Suurio, from the Web 2.0 Expo in New York City this week.

How to get protection from these threats:

WOT, Web of Trust, provides Internet users with preventive protection against online threats. The WOT security add-on warns users about dangerous and suspicious websites to help them avoid spyware, browser hijacking, identity theft, phishing and other Internet scams. Website rating information is updated continuously by the user community and numerous trusted sources, such as listings of malware and phishing sites. The free security add-on works with Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers and can be downloaded at www.mywot.com.

More articles are on the news page at WOT.
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Now there was something about this that got my interest.

This is a bit round-about, but just bear with me for a moment.

I occasionally do some ‘keyword research’ about internet security and computer security. (That’s what we website owners do when we want to know what people are searching for on the internet.)
A couple of years ago I made my first pages here about spyware and anti-spyware software.
My keyword research showed me that a lot of people search using terms like ‘best antispyware’, ‘top antispyware’ and so on.

Nobody was searching for the terms that occurred naturally to me: e.g. ‘quality antispyware’, ‘reputable antispyware brands’, trusted antispyware software’.

Now this is all very well: people don’t want to spend all day evaluating different software and comparing lists of features just so they can get some protection from spyware.

So people think ‘Okay, I’d better get that spyware protection issue sorted out: just tell me, Favourite Search Site, which is the Best One.’

But, in reality, searching for the ‘best antispyware’ or ‘best antivirus’ is not necessarily going to lead anybody to a trustworthy piece of security software.

The reason for this? It’s that same phenomenon that the news page from WOT is talking about: the proliferation of fake anti-malware products.

In security circles these are called rogue programs or rogue software.

Why is searching for the best not the best approach?

Often when we shop for a solution to a problem we think about optimizing. So we see that shoppers for security software asking ‘just tell me - what’s the best one’.

But, optimizing is not a helpful way to think about computer security.

Here’s why: what’s important about security software is that it’s competent at all the basics.

I imagine people, using optimizing thinking, worrying about whether, this month, it’s Kaspersky, or Norman, or Panda or Avast that is up-to-the-second in catching the most of the latest virus or spyware.

Forget about it! Those are ALL good brands. If you use one of them just be thankful that you didn’t install some very crappy brand.

The same goes for anti-spyware software. The good news about the anti-spyware business is that there are now some brands well known to be trustworthy.

There is free antispyware software that is respected and trusted. And there is commercialy sold antispyware software that is respected and trusted.

You can read about trusted, quality, reputable anti-spyware tools on our pages: Adware and Spyware tools, more information about spyware and our information page about rogue programs (and the unethical advertising that is used to sell them).

Don’t even worry about whether - this month - it’s Lavasoft, Spyware Doctor or SpyCatcher that is performing best: if you have any of those brands installed just be glad that you didn’t fall into a trap and pay for something uselsess or something that may itself be malware.

Because what’s bad about the anti-spyware business is that there are also hundreds of brands of useless rubbish and - worst of all - hundreds of brands of fake ’security tools’ that are themselves spyware. These rogue programs are often aggressively advertised: sometimes they are the first ones to turn up in a search for something like ‘best antispyware’.

So, coming back full-circle, I did appreciate the fact that WOT, on their news page, were treating the proliferation of fake security software as a major internet safety issue.

See our page about rogue programs. It’s long; it’s not pretty, but it has the facts.

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Disclaimer and Transparency:
I don’t have any formal relationship with WOT. They merely introduced themselves to me, by email, as another security-related site, and suggested I visit to see what I think about their free service.

Consequently, I was reminded of some of these security topics: e.g. the usefulness of ’site advisor’ services and the proliferation of rogue software.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 2:43 am and is filed under Computer Security, Safe browsing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.