Scareware – It’s back and this time with a vengeance. So what is scareware you ask? Scareware is a type of malware that is designed look authentic to trick people into downloading potentially dangerous software. This type of cyber attack is so severe that the FBI has issued a security threat warning through the Internet Crimes Complaint Center.  Quote: Downloading the software could result in viruses, malicious software called Trojans, and/or keyloggers-hardware that records passwords and sensitive data-being installed on your computer. Malicious software can cause costly damages for individual users and financial institutions. The FBI estimates scareware has cost victims more than $150 million.
This recent Scareware pop-up comes from user viewing the Internet. A screen appears stating that your computer has been infected. As you watch the screen the numbers in red (the fake virus count) rapidly rises. Then a window pops-up and instructs the user to click to activate a virus scan/removal.