Don’t panic and put yourself in the hands of online tricksters.

ROGUE SECURITY SOFTWARE: A chart showing what type of programs play on which of our emotions to infiltrate our computers and ultimately our lives. — Microsoft Malware Protection Centre

SOME of the most ­horrifying stories feature a helpful stranger who later turns out to be the devil in disguise.

You can read about this kind of dirty trick in the newspapers all the time. Recently, there was a lorry driver who helped a woman in distress and later tried to rape her.

You’ve heard about someone showing up to help a motorist change a burst tyre and then the Good Samaritan turns out to be a robber who had punctured the tyre earlier.

An all-time favourite is the “magic stone” purveyor, who can “cure” people’s illnesses and financial difficulties but makes off with their life savings instead.

Horrid, even frightening ­situations, right? And now, even the virtual world isn’t free from these dirty tricksters.

These scum use technology to scare unsuspecting computer users into giving them access to their machines or worse, their personal banking information.

A common bait is to tell you that your PC is infected with a virus and that you can download an antivirus program from such-and-such a webpage.

In actuality, the antivirus program offers no protection and is often designed instead to steal personal financial information from your computer. It could be anything from a simple keystroke logger to a sophisticated ­computer worm burrowing through your files.

Such rogue programs are ­typically called scareware. They scare a victim into revealing vital information or inviting the devil into their home, so to speak.

Is this threat big?

The most comprehensive report comes from software giant Microsoft Corp’s bi-annual Security Intelligence Report (Sir), which provides a threat analysis of any vulnerabilities in Microsoft and third-party software.

This report, released for the second half of last year recently, detected scareware and other social engineering attacks — such as Win32/FakeXPA and Win32/FakeSecSen — on more than 1.5 million computers worldwide.

That may seem like a drop in the ocean considering that there are hundreds of millions of PCs all over the world. But according to professionals in the field, the threat is becoming more and more real everyday.

“We continue to see an increase in the number of such threats and the complexity of those threats designed to implement crime on a variety of levels online,” said Ng Wai Mun, server business group director in Microsoft Malaysia’s business marketing organisation.

As the security of computer operating systems improves, the users of scareware readjust their attacks — more than 90% of all the latest scareware attacks are at the applications level, according to Sir.

Enterprise security solutions company Trend Micro confirms that rogue security software and the tricksters behind them strike at organisations as well as ­individuals.

Trend Micro, on its security blog, has examples of corporate users downloading fake security software that subsequently held sensitive internal information to ransom.

These ‘data-for-ransom’ ­syndicates entice users to ­download malicious software disguised as utility programs. Once the scareware has ­infiltrated the network, it encrypts selected bits of information and demands a payment for its release.

High on the list

Microsoft’s Sir notes that scareware accounts for three of the Top 10 Internet threats to Malaysian users.

Technical director for ISA Technologies Sdn Bhd, Lim Fun Jin, said scareware is growing and becoming increasingly alarming.

“We have seen many situations where users follow advertisements and download security software from unknown sources in an attempt to rid their systems of malware but the security software turned out to be scareware,” he said.

ISA Technologies is a specialist IT company with core competencies in the areas of high-performance computing and visualisation, advanced high speed networks, e-business systems, software engineering and operations management, as well as security.

Lim also warned that not all scareware has to be proactively downloaded from the Internet. “Increasingly, we are hearing reports of malware being ­em­bed­ded into pirated copies of Windows operating systems,” he said.

“For instance, a real-life ­example we encountered involved a user installing a pirated copy of Windows Vista and after a brief usage period, found that his computer was unusually ‘busy’ with high disk and CPU utilisations, as well as a reduction in Internet speed.

“The victim installed an original security suite in an attempt to diagnose the problem. He found multiple instances of malware embedded in the operating system’s registry and system files, thereby compromising important data and personal information.”

There are other ways that scareware can get into your PC. “Spam is a common delivery vehicle for malware in general,” said Trend Micro on its blog. The perpetrators, it said, rely on the user falling into a panic and ­looking for a quick solution.

Microsoft Malaysia’s Ng ­pointed out that although computer users are always vulnerable to such threats, there are steps that can be taken to reduce the risks.

He said users need to ­constantly educate themselves on the changing threats and the various kinds of tricks that can be pulled on them.

Forewarned is forearmed. “Hence, we make available all data we have on scareware and other online threats to ­customers, partners and the industry,” Ng said.

“We hope this enables our customers and partners to make correct and timely decisions on security measures.”

Look before leaping

Microsoft and Trend Micro advise caution before downloading any security software from an unknown source on the Internet.

Always use an anti-malware product from a known and trusted source, and keep it updated. Be cautious not to follow online or other ­advertisements for unknown software that claim to provide easy protection.

Users should also configure their computers to use Microsoft Update instead of Windows Update because this will ensure the receipt of security updates for Microsoft Office and other Microsoft applications, as well as security updates for Windows operating systems. More information on how to do this is at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311047.

Companies and enterprises should ensure that policies are in place to help secure all filesharing activities among employees and to regulate the use of removable media.

Microsoft enterprise customers can use the Microsoft Security Assessment Tool (MSAT), available at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/cc185712.aspx, to help assess weaknesses in their IT security environment and plan accordingly.

Trend Micro, focusing largely on the enterprise side of the spectrum, offers its smart-­protection network to counter scareware and other malware.

But ultimately, the best defence is the human brain. Computer users should stay vigilant against all Internet threats and be ever suspicious of any attempts to induce them to download a program.

After all, you wouldn’t buy a “magic stone” from someone who says it’ll protect your computer from every kind of malware, would you?