Tech Talk: Where did that Malware Come From
 | Author:
Vic Sample
Vic Sample: MT43 News Treasurer |
Tech Talk
Where did that Malware come from?
I have written several articles about different malware. A few weeks ago, I wrote about someone that had their “PC Frozen” and a message from Windows Defender that said they needed to call Microsoft Support and gave a telephone number. It warned them not to try to fix the problem themselves because it could do irreparable damage to their PC.
Of course, all of that was false. Malware called a “browser locker” had locked up the browser so that it just showed a false page and then they put up a window purporting to be Windows Defender giving them a Microsoft Support number (a fake number) to call to fix the problem.
After I cleared everything up, the person that had called me asked where the malware came from. He said he didn’t go to any new website; he didn’t download anything; he just did his normal stuff. I had no idea where the malware came from.
I get a Tech newsletter every weekday morning that has links to technical articles from several different sources. This morning one of the articles was about a security group that announced that “Threat Actors” have been posting fake news feed articles through browsers that offer you a news feed.
I use the Microsoft Edge browser. It has a news feed that has links to all sorts of articles both locally and nationally. The security group found that the malware guys have been putting out malware news feeds that have links that go to their sites. Once you go to their site they decide whether to pass you on to a valid site or to try to scam you.
If the malware guys scammed everybody that clicked on the news feed link they would quickly be discovered. If they pick and choose who to scam it is much harder to pinpoint them as scammers. They might just pick randomly or they might analyze your location (from your IP address) and determine if it is worth their while to try to scam you.
So, what can you do about it? If you don’t really care about the news feeds just don’t click on any of them. However, if you do like to get the news feeds and you do read the ones that look interesting, there really isn’t anything you can do except to be aware.
If you do end up getting messages telling you to call Microsoft Support (sometimes they claim to be Microsoft partners) do not call them!
If you are pretty comfortable with the technology you can bring up the Windows Task Manager and “end” the program that is causing you a problem. If you don’t feel comfortable with that level of technology just shut down your pc and restart it.
If it was your browser giving you the fake messages be careful when you start it again. If it asks if you want to restore the page you were using DO NOT do that. You might just be restarting the malware!
