Anti-virus software-maker McAfee Inc has warned that malware writers have been found to be disguising their threat software as a McAfee product using a spoofed McAfee icon.
The company said it has come across FakeAlert malware that brands itself as McAfee AntiVirus Pro 2010, and which actually is a spin off of FakeAlert-XPSecCenter which has also previously gone under the name of WinreAnimator.
It is easy for less savvy users to trust that a programme is legitimate based on visible features of a file, such as its icon or file properties, the company has warned.
Just last week PandaLabs noted that spammers were using fake email non-delivery reports to spread spam content sent as attachments.
It found a 2000% increase in the amount of different non-delivery reports spam messages in circulation over the numbers detected in the first six months of the year, with the mail server function being exploited by malware writere to distribute spam.
In an official McAfee blog, the security software vendor noted, “It has become a common sight for malware to be spoofing program file resources such as icons or company information from other legitimate software. One of the most spoofed resources are Microsoft file properties such as company information or icons from programs“calc.exe”, “notepad.exe”, even Windows folder icons.”
With more hardware vendors, ISPs and now even financial services companies bundling McAfee’s products with their offers, the company will be keen to see this malware channel closed out. “Perhaps malware authors are taking notice of McAfee as one of the world’s most trusted security companies” Abhishek Karnik of McAfee posted in the blog.
An 18-month contract McAfee has with Dell is just about to be reviewed, and according to a recent research note by analyst firm Jefferies & Co, McAfee could be about to surpass Symantec as the largest enterprise security provider.
