Showy malware pushes rogue anti-malware product

MonaRonaDona trojan leads searchers to remover scam.

An infection which advertises its presence using the name 'MonaRonaDona' is leading victims to search for a cure - and many of them are finding a targeted rogue anti-malware application widely promoted on the web as a dedicated fix for the problem.

In stark contrast to the stealth practised by most modern malware, the infection makes itself very clear to users of infected systems, shutting down a raft of core applications including most of Microsoft's Office suite and popping up a message boasting of the infection, claiming to carry a political message about human rights abuses.

With the self-applied name 'MonaRonaDona' clearly advertised, users searching for the string are likely to find sites pushing an apparent anti-malware product called Unigray. This operates in the standard manner of the genre, alerting on numerous spurious infections on clean systems, including false positive alerts on the 'MonaRonaDona' name, and requiring a payment for a fully functioning version supposedly capable of cleaning the 'infections'.

Readers are advised only to use security software with a solid reputation and a strong history in independent testing. Full details of the Unigray scam are in a Kaspersky Labs blog entry here.

04 March 2008

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