Internet Security 2012 is a fake anti-virus program, which belongs to the same rogue family as Privacy Protection. It uses a whole range of mischief tactics in order to convince its victims into believing their computers have been flooded with viruses. Internet Security 2012 then prompts victims to purchase its phony full version.
Trojans are the ones to deliver the Internet Security 2012 infection to targeted computers. They lie in hide in corrupted websites and sneak into PCs by exploiting vulnerabilities found in them. Mere clicking through a compromised website triggers the Trojans, and they enter the machine without the user’s consent or even knowledge. Since most vulnerabilities in the computer systems are caused by outdated software, it is highly recommended to keep all your program up-to-date. It is also vastly important to download the updates only from the official websites of the products. Furthermore, visiting suspicious websites should also be avoided as a preliminary measure against rogue infections.
When Internet Security 2012 is already in the PC, its first task is to configure itself to start automatically as soon as Windows starts. Thus, every time the user starts the PC, Internet Security 2012 appears and pretends to be scanning the computer system for viruses. When it has already made the malicious configurations, a variety of counterfeit alerts and notifications start appearing on the victim’s screen. Some of these are:
Firewall Warning
Hidden file transfers to remote host has been detected.
Internet Security 2012 has detected a leak of your files through the Internet. We strongly recommend that you block the attack immediately.
Security Warning
Malicious program has been detected. Click here to protect your computer.
Regardless of the fact that they look extremely disturbing, since they warn about a variety of security threats, they are only a method for scaring the victim. Clicking on them only leads to a prompt to purchase Internet Security 2012. With their constant popping-up they are not only irritating, but they also hamper the user’s work on the PC and slow down its overall performance.
Figure 1. Internet Security 2012 fake screen
The second scare-tactic used by Internet Security 2012 is the work of its fraudulent scanning tool. The interface of the program might seem legitimate to some of you, but this should not trick you. The scans are invented with the mere intention of presenting legitimate files as viruses. Then, the victim is urged to buy the full version of Internet Security 2012. Spending your money on this application, however, is the last thing you should do, because the full version is just as inefficient when it comes to detecting or removing viruses, as the trial one.
Internet Security 2012 has also included in its program a special trick – preventing the victim from running executables. Whenever the user tries to launch a given application, an Internet Security 2012 message is displayed, which declares that the requested program has been corrupted:
[name].exe can not start
File [name].exe is infected by W32/Blaster.worm. Please activate Internet Security 2012 to protect your computer.
Despite the fact that this is a part of the scare-strategy used by the rogue, this action is, in fact, Internet Security 2012′s desperate attempt to discourage the user from trying to launch any genuine AV programs that may be installed on the computer.
To sum up, Internet Security 2012 is a great con, invented by cyber criminals in order to benefit from users’ unawareness. Even though it pretends to be a genuine anti-virus software, it is nothing more but a virus itself. Therefor, it should be exterminated as soon as it creeps into a machine with the help of a legitimate anti-virus tool.
*SpyHunter’s free scanner is only for malware detection. If SpyHunter detects malware on your PC, you will need to purchase SpyHunter’s malware suite to remove the malware threats.