Firefox team has always worked in providing complete security and advanced privacy features to its users. One of its advance features alerts users on browsing a site that has been flagged as malicious. But scammers and scareware campaigners have brought in a work around and are utilizing this technique. A news published by Sophos details of a new scareware campaign that directs Firefox users to rogue pages mimicking the security alerts normally issued by the browser. Scamers behind this recent scareware distribution campaign have cloned the page and modified it to appear as if a computer scan is also performed and infections are found. Security researchers told that Internet Explorer users get the standard “My Computer” dialog that appears to do a system scan inside their browser window. “Mozilla Firefox recommends you to install proper software to protect your computer,” the phishing page says and presents users with a “Start Protection” button. Clicking the button will prompt people to download and install a rogue antivirus application whose purpose is to scare them into paying for a license to allegedly clean the fictitious infections.
Scareware pushers have been using many tricks in the past year and have been targeting users. In the past, they have also targeted Firefox users through fake “what’s new” pages that are usually displayed after the browser is updated to a new version. With the increase in spreading of these activities, we advice users to be up to date and use all essential security components for home security.
