Channel Daily News

Rogue security applications top August’s threats

An intense campaign involving rogue security applications this past month shows that cyber criminals are clearly trying to take advantage of users’ security concerns, according to unified threat management provider Fortinet.

Rogue security applications have become a popular and emerging area taking a new social engineering approach — black hats posing as white hats, according to Fortinet security researcher, Derek Manky.

The security research house has just announced the top 10 most reported high-risk threats for August 2008. Malware W32/Multidr.JD!tr and HTML/Agent.HFZ!phish, disguised as security software AntiVirus XP 2008 and XP Security Center, claimed the top two positions in Fortinet’s Top 10 with nearly 20 percent of the month’s activities.