The first time the utility called Alpha Antivirus underwent active discussion in the IT security groups was Sep.22 2009 when cyber criminals attempted and succeeded to overwhelm Google top search results with some entries which redirected to fake scanner sites.
Along with that, some signs of alarm and even panic came up when Alpha Antivirus appeared to resemble one of the most hazardous and widespread rogue anti-spyware applications of the last 6 months generally known as Personal Antivirus which literally terrorized the digital security world. This hint at similarity of the above two programs called forth the mobilization of leading antivirus software developers who did recognize Alpha Antivirus to be a maintainer of the malicious rogueware traditions of Personal Antivirus. Now, let’s try to take an insight into Alpha Antivirus essence and what purposes this malware might have been released for.
In its initial activity, Alpha Antivirus has been exhibiting one of the essential common traits as compared with Personal Antivirus – it is the active and feverish browser hijacking routine employed for rapid propagation of Alpha Antivirus freeware throughout the worldwide web. Examples of such “debut” hijackers are: Mycomputer-scannerp.com, Mycomputeronline06.com, Mycomputerscan14.com, Computeron-linescan09.com, Updatesystem01.com and Mycomputerupdates01.com. It’s noteworthy that the blackhat SEO (Search Engine Optimization) fraudsters exploited some intricate redirect schemes involving popular search topics (e.g. celebrity issues, TV-show themes) – this approach is exemplified by such tricky redirecting domains as Jennifer-hudson-site.com and Boy-meets-world.com which are programmed to make the unsuspecting web-surfer hit a bogus system scanner page in the long run.
Having intimidated its to-be victim through its spoof scan results, Alpha Antivirus immediately gets down to “malvertising” its full commercial software by declaring it is capable of exterminating absolutely all of the allegedly exposed parasites. Alpha Antivirus has taken over the well-paved fraudulent payment system previously and concurrently applied by its digital predecessor, so the rogueware won’t fail to get hold of some of your credit card savings – that’s beyond doubt. So it’s critical to be as watchful as possible when intending to complete a payment transaction for Alpha Antivirus purchasing; to be more precise – it’s essential to refrain from buying Alpha Antivirus and suchlike applications on the whole.
Taking into account the current enormous rate of Alpha Antivirus propagation, the malware developers must have the ambitions, the fortitude and the needed resources at their disposal to substitute and, perhaps, exceed the commercial profits Personal Antivirus used to bring them. Considering this, it’s an issue of paramount importance to stay away from Alpha Antivirus. Not only is this program a swindling money-retrieval machine; it also deteriorates the basic system parameters when operating on one’s PC, hence a slow computer problem, system freezes and growing system vulnerability are sure to be right there to encounter with Alpha Antivirus on board.
If one happens to get stricken with Alpha Antivirus cyber disease, it’s critical to take adequate and prompt measures to uninstall it. Since Alpha Antivirus is usually not removable through the routine means like Control Panel (Add/Remove Programs GUI) or via System Restore option, it takes a special approach to get rid of the pest. One might need to try and remove Alpha Antivirus manually (i.e. by erasing the rogue’s files and registry keys it creates), or launching a professional anti-spyware tool in Safe Mode with Networking. In any case, taking utmost effort to avoid Alpha Antivirus and remove it (if infected) is a must.
Written by Bob Asher
realnetscout@gmail.com
WindowsProtection
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