Rik Ferguson
Organised criminal gangs are set to use Christmas as a way of spreading computer viruses.
An increase in online activity over the festive season will give cybercriminals the ideal opportunity to attack PC’s and laptops according to Rik Ferguson, a senior security advisor at network antivirus and internet content security firm Trend Micro. He says:
"They will rely on you having that desire to do things online that you only do once, twice three times a year and they will use that to spread fake antivirus software - software that looks really like a legitimate security program - that is designed to tell you there are lots of problems on your PC that don’t exist and they will only clear them up if you pay them for it.
"At the end of the day you have given them your credit card details, they will have infected your PC and you will have paid them for the privilege"
This follow news that more than 1,200 websites targeting Christmas shoppers have been shut down by Metropolitan Police.
The websites purported to sell designer items but innocent shoppers received either nothing at all or counterfeit products.
Ferguson also predicts that people who get a computer as a present on Christmas day will be at risk, as often it won’t have any security software installed, or if it does it won’t be up to date.
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