G DATA Software AG: Antivirus, Virenschutz, Virenscanner, Internet Security

Experience from last year has shown that the cyber gangsters exploit international large events over and over again to enhance their campaigns. In 2008, the Storm botnet gang, highly effective at the time, harvested a rich yield from its distribution of Valentine‘s Day malware. Although "storm" now belongs to the past, its successors are already in the starting blocks. The G Data Security Labs experts have already seen concrete cases of current Valentine‘s Day malware.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dangerous greeting: Screenshot of a primed Valentine‘s website

 

Valentine‘s hunting season is opened
Time and again internationally significant events are focused upon by online criminals. The spectrum extends from political events, such as the inauguration of American President Obama, sports events such as the Olympic Games, through to holidays such as Christmas or the now imminent Valentine‘s Day.

The scam of the attackers is a simple but extremely effective one: The reference to a current event serves the instigators as a so-called „mind opener“. It is meant to cre-ate awareness and/or trust in the potential victims. The target: As many recipients as possible should open or click on the apparently current information (e.g. videos, images) or the personal content (e.g. greeting cards or screen savers) to create the corresponding result.

Whoever is persuaded to launch such types of software is, in most cases, handing the attacker control of his or her computer. Quickly, the compromised system forms part of a botnet and can be remotely controlled by the attackers. Subsequently, there is now nothing to prevent abuse in the form of data theft or use of the com-promised computer to send spam and distribute further malware.

 

Tips from the experts
Recipients should always delete emails from unknows senders and under no circumstances click on links in emails from unknown senders. To maintain optimum security, the operating system and virus protection software must always be updated to the latest version. The use of security packages with http-scanners, which scan all web content for malicious code before it reaches the browser should be obligatory in this respect.

 

About the company
G Data Software AG, with its head office in Bochum, is an innovative and quickly expanding software house focusing on IT security solutions. As a specialist in internet security and pioneer in the field of vi-rus protection, the company, founded in Bochum in 1985, developed the first antivirus program more than 20 years ago.

The product range comprises security solutions for end customers as well as medium to large-sized enterprises.

When it comes to quality, G Data is a world leader, combining the world‘s best security technolo-gies in its products. Examples of this are its DoubleScan technology with two independent virus scanners and the OutbreakShield instant protection. Over the last five years, no other European security software provider has won more national and international tests and awards than G Data.

G Data security solutions are available worldwide in more than 30 countries.