A rise in fake antivirus offerings on Web sites around the globe shows that
scammers are increasingly turning to social engineering to get malware on
computers rather than exploiting holes in software, a Google study to be
released on Tuesday indicates.
Fake antivirus--false pop-up warnings designed to scare money out of computer
users--represents 15 percent of all malware that Google detects on Web sites,
according to 13-month analysis the company conducted between January 2009 and
February 2010.
That's a five-fold increase from when the company first started its analysis,
Niels Provos, a principal software engineer at Google, said in an interview.
