Sunbelt Software - VIPRE White Paper Sample

This class of malware describes software that monitors Internet use for known e-commerce sites. When a user attempts to reach a site, adware can pop up an alternate suggested site, which may or may not be legitimate. Not long ago, adware was a substantial component of all malware infections, with legitimate companies crafting specially-worded End User Licensing Agreements (EULAs) that made many infections deceptively legal. Recent litigation along with user education has resulted in the closure of many of these early organizations or their reconfiguration from legitimate to illegitimate entities. The financial gain associated with adware has lessened somewhat in recent years, with a resulting reduction in instances of this type.

Another aged malware class is the dialer or porn dialer. This software was used heavily in the days when modems were a primary mechanism for connecting to the Internet. This class of malware could silently disconnect a modem from its service provider and redial to another premium-rate telephone number. The resulting phone number charges, usually to far-removed countries, would be found by the user on their next telephone bill. Dialers have gone out of vogue as more Internet connections are broadband-based, and as telephone companies update their policies to find and eliminate the businesses that use such practices.

A much more modern construct, rogue security programs are a common occurrence in today’s malware landscape. These software bundles download and install one or more obvious malware packages onto a targeted machine, while simultaneously installing code that alerts the user to the infection. The “rogue” in rogue security programs is named so because users are then shown how to purchase specialized software that will remove the malware. In essentially all cases, utilizing the suggested software does not actually remove the initial infector itself, keeping the system open for continued use by the attacker.