Microsoft Killing Microsoft Security Essentials Fake – Security Essentials 2010
Microsoft is working to kill a rogue antivirus solution that is spread under a label that’s simply too close for comfort to the company’s own free and legitimate security solution:
Microsoft Security Essentials. The software giant first warned of a fake antivirus solution being distributed as
Security Essentials 2010 at the start of 2010. Now, the latest release of With the Malicious Software Removal Tool is designed to identify and remove Security Essentials 2010 from compromised PCs. MSRT is a free security solution available from Microsoft that hunts down only a specific list of malware.
Rogue security solutions, also called fake AV or scareware, are malicious programs that trick the user into buying useless licenses for non-functioning antivirus programs. While masquerading as legitimate security products, scareware use deceptive tactics to convince users that their machines are infected when it’s not the case, and attempt to scare them into paying for a license to have inexistent threats removed. Security Essentials 2010, which is also being known as Internet Security 2010, is a rogue security program belonging to the Win32/Fakeinit malware family.
Hamish O'Dea, from the Microsoft Malware Protection Center, noted that Microsoft expected the attackers behind the rogue solution to start labeling it Security Essentials 2011 soon.
