Microsoft kicks fake security software off 400,000 PCs
InfoWorld | at | by Mike
In the second month of a campaign against fake security software, Microsoft has booted the rogue application "Antivirus 2009" from almost 400,000 PCs, the company recently claimed.
Microsoft also aimed the December version of MSRT at an affiliated piece of malware, called "W32/Yektel," that works alongside W32FakeXPA and is often bundled with the phony security software.
Classified by Microsoft as a Trojan horse, Yektel takes advantage of users' worries about browser security by inserting false warnings into Internet Explorer . Those warnings, explained Microsoft researcher Hamish O'Dea in a post to the company's malware protection center blog two weeks ago, appear at random and mimic IE's own legitimate drop-down alerts.