"Anatomy of a malware scam" by Jesper M. Johansson

In a very recent article posted on TheRegister, Jesper M. Johansson, software architect and writer of the book Windows Server 2008 Security Resource Kit, lays bare the anatomy of the XP Antivirus 2008 malware kit.
He explains in layman terms and with screenshots how one of the modern day malware kits tries to fool users into clicking links and gifs, spending their money and handing over their credit card details.
He describes in short how criminal gangs make and use this malware, make some of it even look like modern Vista UAC warnings, where they fail, how to recognize it/what to look for and how to avoid crap like this.

It's a useful read, if only to learn how you can warn friends, family/parents etc.

link: Anatomy of a malware scam by Jesper M. Johansson.

 

Thanks for the link; that's a very informative article. If I may, the article can be succinctly summed up with the following two quotes:

and

Those two points are, of course, the epitome of common sense, and probably the best defense, bar none, against getting suckered by malware.

 

Interesting, I like reading about stuff like this, showing the programs and how they get on PC's. Thanks.

 

Very good read. Thanks to you Baserk I learnt a lot.

Cheers,
Theo