Microsoft claims to have removed fake security software from nearly a million PCs during nine days this month, following the release of an anti-malware tool delivered as part of November’s round of Patch Tuesday updates.
In a post to the company's malware protection centre blog, three of Microsoft's security researchers spelled out the impact this month's edition of the Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) has had on phony security software.
In the period from November 11 to November 19, said Scott Wu, Scott Molenkamp and Hamish O'Dea, MSRT purged more than 994,000 machines of what the tool recognises as ‘W32/FakeSecSen', the malware label for a broad range of bogus security program with names such as ‘Advanced Antivirus', ‘Spyware Preventer', ‘Ultimate Antivirus 2008' and ‘XPert Antivirus'.
Windows users have been plagued with a flood of worthless security software in recent months as criminals have discovered that they're money-makers. According to one researcher, cybercriminals can pull in as much as £3.3 million a year by installing the rogue programs on PCs, then tricking users with made-up claims that the machine is infected.Unless consumers fork over a payment - usually £30 - the constant stream of pop-up messages continue, making the machine hard to use.
Windows users may install the fake programs because they've been duped into thinking that they're real - at times, bogus security software has been ranked high in internet search results - although the rogue applications are also often secretly installed by malware that's infected a system.
The clean-up job was one of Microsoft's biggest ever.
Windows users can download the MSRT manually from Microsoft’s website or via the Windows Update service.
