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A rise in fake antivirus offerings on Web sites around the globe shows that scammers are increasingly turning to social engineering to get malware on computers rather than exploiting holes in software, a Google study to be released on Tuesday indicates.

Fake antivirus–false pop-up warnings designed to scare money out of computer users–represents 15 percent of all malware that Google detects on Web sites, according to 13-month analysis the company conducted between January 2009 and February 2010.

That’s a five-fold increase from when the company first started its analysis, Niels Provos, a principal software engineer at Google, said in an interview.

Meanwhile, fake antivirus scams represent half of all malware delivered via advertisements, which is becoming a problem for high-profile sites that rely on their advertisers and ad networks to distribute clean ads.

Google analyzed 240 million Web pages and uncovered more than 11,000 domains involved in fake antivirus distribution for the study, which Google is set to unveil at the Usenix Workshop on Large-Scale Exploits and Emergent Threats Tuesday in San Jose, Calif.

Researchers also found that over the course of the study, domains used for distributing the malware were online for shorter and shorter periods of time in the face of Google’s Safe Browsing technology. Used in Chrome and Firefox, Safe Browsing helps alert Web browsers to sites hosting malware, Provos said.

“As early as 2003, malware authors prompted users to download fake AV software by sending messages via a vulnerability in the Microsoft Messenger service. We observed the first form of fake AV attack involving Web sites, e.g. Malwarealarm.com, in our systems on March 3, 2007,” the report says. “At that time, fake AV attacks employed simple JavaScript to display an alert that asked users to download a fake AV executable.”

“More recent fake AV sites have evolved to use complex JavaScript to mimic the look and feel of the Windows user interface,” the report continues. “In some cases, the fake AV detects even the operating system version running on the target machine and adjusts its interface to match.”

Fake antivirus is easy money for scammers, Provos said.

“Once it is installed on the user system, it’s difficult to uninstall, you can’t run Windows updates anymore or install other antivirus products, and you must install the [operating] system,” rending it unusable until it is cleaned up, he said.

Provos said when encountering a fake antivirus message, Web surfers should close the browser and restart the program. People who are duped by the scam may have to get professional help in cleaning up the computer, he said. They should also monitor their credit card accounts because scammers can use the credit card information for identity fraud.

source:- Cnet News

A month after the rumors first started flying, Apple finally confirmed that it has indeed purchased Intrinsity, a Texas-based chipmaker.

Apple confirmed the acquisition on Tuesday to The New York Times, though it did not disclose the purchase price or what Apple’s plans for Intrinsity are. One guess has the value at $121 million.

It’s the second chipmaker purchased by Apple in two years starting with P.A. Semi, which it bought for $278 million. It’s also the fourth acquisition Apple has made since last fall; it bought map API maker PlaceBase in October, social music site LaLa in December, and mobile ad company Quattro Wireless in January for $275 million.

Though it appears like Apple is on a bit of a shopping spree right now, the company has the funds to back it up. At the end of its second fiscal quarter of 2010, Apple reported it had accumulated $41.7 billion in cash. Though Steve Jobs told investors at the annual company meeting that he had no plans to use that to offer a dividend to shareholders, he did hint what he’d rather do instead.

“You never know what opportunity is around the corner,” Jobs said at the February meeting. “We’re very fortunate that if we needed to acquire something we could write a check for it and not have to borrow money.” In light of the recent string of purchases, that could be a hint there are even more small acquisitions like this to come.

But what does Apple need Intrinsity for? It’s unclear, but it’s been rumored that the chipmaker is the outfit that assisted Samsung in building the speedy processor inside the iPad.

Microsoft announced Tuesday it has finished the task of customizing Windows 7 to run on TVs, set-top boxes, digital signs, and other devices.

Among other things, the new software could allow Windows Media Center on new types of devices, Microsoft said. The operating system, dubbed Windows Embedded Standard 7, was shown Tuesday at the ESC Silicon Valley conference in San Jose, Calif.

“With the release of Windows Embedded Standard 7, Microsoft has furthered its commitment to the integration of Windows 7 technologies in the specialized consumer and enterprise device markets,” said Kevin Dallas, general manager of Microsoft’s Windows Embedded unit.

The PC version of Windows 7 is already running on more than 10 percent of computers worldwide, Microsoft said last week as it announced quarterly earnings.

Microsoft first showed the embedded software, previously code-named Quebec, at ESC Boston in September. At that point, Microsoft was calling it Windows Embedded Standard 2011.