Watch Out For ByteDefender, the Evil Twin of BitDefender
BitDefender is an award winning security software application that provides properly good protection against viruses and other security threats. ByteDefender on the other hand is anything but a genuine security software solution. This application is nothing more than a rogue that exploits BitDefender’s good name for its own malicious purposes.
Rogues, as you may already know, are fake antivirus applications that try to scam you out of your hard earned money. Once they manage to make their way onto your computer, they trick you into thinking your computer is infected, or under attack, or some other scary thing along the same lines. Then the rogues ask for money to remove the infection, stop the attack, or so on. They don’t actually do anything – from a security point of view.
As BitDefender explained, the rogue is distributed by a web domain registered in Ukraine. The people with malicious intent are counting on the user making a spelling error when trying to access the BitDefender webpage. Once on the malicious website of ByteDefender, the user is tricked into downloading an application that seems like the genuine BitDefender antivirus. Other rogues rely on the classic drive-by method to spread. This one relies on the user making a spelling mistake; and on the popularity of BitDefender.
“Cyber-criminals know no boundaries when it comes to distributing and marketing their rogue security products. Sensational events, Trojanised applications or websites and carefully forged – yet useless – ‘security products’ are only a few of the multitude of methods to capitalize on unwary users,” commented Senior researcher with BitDefender, Catalin Cosoi.
BitDefender’s products already provide protection against ByteDefender. If you are infected with ByteDefender and would like to remove the rogue from your system, BitDefender has released a free removal tool that you can download here.
A few images of the ByteDefender rogue below.
Rogues, as you may already know, are fake antivirus applications that try to scam you out of your hard earned money. Once they manage to make their way onto your computer, they trick you into thinking your computer is infected, or under attack, or some other scary thing along the same lines. Then the rogues ask for money to remove the infection, stop the attack, or so on. They don’t actually do anything – from a security point of view.
As BitDefender explained, the rogue is distributed by a web domain registered in Ukraine. The people with malicious intent are counting on the user making a spelling error when trying to access the BitDefender webpage. Once on the malicious website of ByteDefender, the user is tricked into downloading an application that seems like the genuine BitDefender antivirus. Other rogues rely on the classic drive-by method to spread. This one relies on the user making a spelling mistake; and on the popularity of BitDefender.
“Cyber-criminals know no boundaries when it comes to distributing and marketing their rogue security products. Sensational events, Trojanised applications or websites and carefully forged – yet useless – ‘security products’ are only a few of the multitude of methods to capitalize on unwary users,” commented Senior researcher with BitDefender, Catalin Cosoi.
BitDefender’s products already provide protection against ByteDefender. If you are infected with ByteDefender and would like to remove the rogue from your system, BitDefender has released a free removal tool that you can download here.
A few images of the ByteDefender rogue below.
