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Despite the consistent media exposure that FAKEAV malware receives, it has always been business-as-usual for the FAKEAV proponents. To find out why the notorious malware persists, Trend Micro researchers looked into three important aspects.

These include: 1) social engineering techniques; 2) FAKEAV technology; and 3) the FAKEAV business itself.

Social Engineering

Social engineering is a technique prevalently used in furthering malicious activities both online and offline. Online, however, FAKEAV is a good example of a social engineering success story. By leveraging human weakness, FAKEAV effectively utilizes social engineering techniques such as “Black Hat” search engine optimization (SEO) to trick users.

The Technology Behind FAKEAV

Behind the professional looking GUIs, annoying pop-ups and other scareware tactics used by FAKEAV lies a simple technology. It can thus be said that FAKEAV technology is more tricky than complex. Despite the relative simplicity of FAKEAV technology, however, it plays a critical role in the success of FAKEAV’s social engineering tactics.

The FAKEAV Business

Of course, a malicious campaign is meaningless if it does not benefit its proponents. When it comes to the FAKEAV business, the stakes are high. Apart from taking away about US$ 40–100 from a user’s account as payment for rogue software, the more pressing concern with FAKEAV is information theft.

Learn more about the persistent FAKEAV and its three fundamental aspects with Security Spotlight article, “Why FAKEAV Persists” [.pdf].

Post from: TrendLabs | Malware Blog - by Trend Micro

The Persistence of FAKEAV