McAfee warns of software imposter

McAfee is warning users following the discovery of a new rogue security application that masquerades as the company's flagship antivirus suite.

The company said that the rogue application, known as 'AntiVirus Pro' is using McAfee's own application icons in an attempt to trick users into believing the product is originating from the security vendor.

Rogue security applications use deceptive methods, such as fake scans and deceptive alert messages, into believing that their systems are infected. After the rogue security application is purchased, the tools often either do nothing to protect the system or install further malware packages.

McAfee researcher Abhishek Karnik said in a blog posting that the rogue application spoofing McAfee was attempting to take advantage of the trust the company had built up with users.

Karnik advised users to carefully inspect security tools and avoid trusting downloads based simply on an icon or file property information.

"It has become a common sight for malware to be spoofing program file resources such as icons or company information from other legitimate software," he wrote.

"It is easy for less- computer-savvy users to trust that a program is legitimate based on visible features of a file, such as its icon or file properties. It is a nice facade for malware to slip through."