Security Bulletins

Our friends on the Microsoft support team tell us that they’ve heard a lot of complaints lately about Win32/FakeRean, a rogue antivirus program that claims to scan your computer for viruses and spyware and displays fake warnings.

Win32/FakeRean isn’t new. According to the Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC) blog, this nasty little rogue has been around since at least August of last year. The MMPC also reports that Win32/FakeRean goes by different names and different looking interfaces and can customize itself according to which operating system you’re running.

Here are some of the fake names that Win32/FakeRean uses:

Desktop Defender 2010	PC Security 2009	Security Central
AV Security Suite Platinum	Security Suite Platinum	AV Platinum
Antivirus Suite Platinum	AVG Antivirus Suite Platinum	CA Internet Security Suite
Windows 7	Windows Vista	Windows XP
Win 7 Internet Security 2010	Vista Internet Security 2010	XP Internet Security 2010
Win 7 Internet Security	Vista Internet Security	XP Internet Security
Win 7 Antivirus Pro 2010	Vista Antivirus Pro 2010	XP Antivirus Pro 2010
Win 7 Antivirus Pro	Vista Antivirus Pro	XP Antivirus Pro
Win 7 Antivirus 2010	Vista Antivirus 2010	XP Antivirus 2010
Win 7 Antivirus	Vista Antivirus	XP Antivirus
Win 7 Defender 2010	Vista Defender 2010	XP Defender 2010
Win 7 Guardian	Vista Guardian	XP Guardian
Win 7 Guardian 2010	Vista Guardian 2010	XP Guardian 2010
Antivirus Win 7 2010	Antivirus Vista 2010	Antivirus XP 2010
Win 7 Antispyware 2010	Vista Antispyware 2010	XP Antispyware 2009, 2010

If you have accidentally downloaded this software, you might see a warning that looks like this:

Or you might see a window that looks like:

This is what it looks like on Windows 7:

The exception is when it comes to interface elements that imitate parts of the operating system. On Windows XP, for example, FakeRean displays an imitation of Windows XP's Security Center:

When running on Windows 7, it displays a fake copy of the Action Center:

If you suspect that you've downloaded rogue security software onto your computer, boot into a safe mode with networking and run a scan with the Windows Live Safety Scanner and make sure that you have updated antivirus and antispyware software (like Microsoft Security Essentials) running on your computer.

For more information from Micrsoft.

Privacy Center is not Microsoft software
From: Microsoft
Issued: January 12, 2010

Privacy Center is not Microsoft software. It’s a new form of fake antimalware software (also known as rogue security software) that pretends to help protect your computer, but is really a new form of spyware. It can slow down your computer and damage your files.

Here are images of Privacy Center: