Sunday, June 04, 2006

Trust Cleaner - Rogue Anti Spyware Application

Reported today in Bleeping Computer's Security Blog is an excellent write up on the newest rogue application on the block.

What is it and what does it do?

Trust Cleaner is very similar to others of it's ilk, like Spyware Quake and SpyFalcon, in as much as it uses trojans to generate fake warnings telling you that you are infected with all sorts of nasty stuff and goading you into buying the product as it is the only way to rescue and restore your computer.
You may sit there thinking... Oh yeah, like I'm going to fall for that one!! Maybe you won't but I've come across many people who have been driven to distraction with these warnings and nags and have ended up purchasing the fake product.

This one takes things one step further though... not only does it scare you to death with it's 'You are Infected' warnings, but it will install a toolbar and basically hijack your searches and plague you with pop up ads. The final nasty is that it will change your home page to one that looks and feels like the Google search engine, but if you check the address in your address bar you will see that you aren't on www.google.com but actually C:\Windows\local.html

The Security Blog at BleepingComputer has some nice screen shots that will show you exactly what you are up against.

If you are unlucky enough to be infected with this nasty bit of coding then there is a self help removal guide here; Trust Cleaner Removal Guide

Happy Surfing

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