Rogues are Getting Sophisticated

Rogue anti-spyware programs have been around for quite a while and have managed to get quite boring over the years. Luckily there is a new method out there that spices things up a bit. FileFix Professional 2009, a program that seemed like a perfectly normal fake registry cleaner at first sight, has presented us with an upgrade to the old “scare the user, make him buy stuff” routine by holding our files hostage.

Apparently, the whole scam is spread by trojan Vundo – it pushes malware that encrypts personal files, such as .jpg, .mp3, .pdf among others, and, seemingly by coincidence, suggests the user purchase FileFix Professional 2009 to decrypt the files.

While this scam is hardly something to be afraid of, the fact remains that it’s generally a great idea and can do some serious damage if it becomes a trend.

As for the encrypted files, more technical details and a free decrypter can be found here.

Articles filefix professional