OCTOBER 9, 2008

WARNING! Your Computer Is At Risk.

WARNING!  Your computer has been infected with a Trojan virus.  Critical files could be lost.  Click HERE to download an anti-virus program that will fix your system!

This is just one of a slew of pop-up warnings that spyware and malware creators use to try to mislead unsuspecting Internet users into downloading potentially harmful software.

A new study by researchers at North Carolina State University shows that most Internet users are still unable to distinguish genuine pop-up warnings from fake ones – even after repeated mistakes.  (Is there a Pavlov in the house?)

The study examined the responses of undergraduate students to real and fake warning messages while they conducted a series of Internet searches on a personal computer.   The real warning messages simulated local Windows operating system warnings, whereas the fake messages were from an external source and designed to trick users into downloading a harmful virus or malicious software.

Participants were fooled by the fake messages 63 percent of the time, hitting the “OK” button in the message box when it appeared on the screen despite being told that some of what they would be seeing would be fake.

“This study demonstrates how easy it is to fool people on the Web,” says study co-author Dr. Michael S. Wogalter, professor of psychology at NC State.

Most telling of all, however, was that, after interviewing the participants, researchers found that the students were so eager to get the pop-up boxes out of the way that they clicked right through obvious warning signs.  In other words, after being saturated by so many advertisements and marketing tools, the students had become too desensitized to notice the actual risks - and perhaps even the benefits - associated with the ads.

You should know that the most prevalent scareware program in circulation today is called Antivirus XP 2008.  Often installed on a PC without proper notification, the software bombards victims with fake security warnings, trying to convince them to buy worthless programs that sometimes even harm their PCs.

The good news is that Microsoft is working with the state of Washington to sue companies that exploit Windows to deliver these misleading popups.  Microsoft, after all, has a strong incentive to curtail spyware: about 50% of its customer-support calls come from spyware-related crashes.  A few times a year, I too am forced to spend an uncomfortable evening resolving a spyware problem.  What about you?