Fake Software updates — Logical Cybersecurity

Beginner's Guide to Privacy and Security

Best practices and recommendations on how to protect and recover from compromised accounts and computers, use real-world scenarios to detail how scams and phishing emails are used and provide best practices on how to use the internet in a more safe and secure manner to protect yourself, your family, and your clients.

A Beginner's Guide to Privacy and Security

Trying to remain safe online, practicing good security and working to keep your data private is extremely challenging. This is made even more difficult with the speed at which technology changes, vulnerabilities are discovered, and attackers change their tactics. Just when you think you have learned the right techniques to keep your data private and your devices, email, etc., secure, another breach is announced, a new vulnerability is discovered in your operating system or web browser, and/or attackers come up with another scam/trick to gain access to your devices or information...all of which are out of your control. If you aren't tech savvy, it can be even more overwhelming. Since technology and attack methods change so rapidly, there are no simple answers or steps you can take to be 100% protected. This is where we are hoping we can help by recommending steps you can take to increase the security of your accounts and devices, better protect your privacy, and be safer online. Check out our "Security 101" section for a collection of the minimum security procedures everyone should be following.

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Attackers will often disguise malware as legitimate software. One of the more common tricks, is to mask malware as updates to legitimate software. So it is important to be cautious when updating software. You can stumble onto a compromised website or a website with a malicious advertisement that triggers a fake alert asking you update a piece of software. It may look legitimate, even down to the company's logo, verbiage, etc., but I would avoid updating software that pops-up while surfing the web.

In the example below, you see a request to update Adobe Flash. However, the address bar shows an IP address not Adobe's actual website. I would close your browser and then reopen to start fresh. If you need to update your Adobe Flash Player, or any other piece of software, I would perform an internet search in your favorite search engine for the software. Then navigate to the company's website directly to perform the download/update. In the 2nd picture/example below, I performed a search for "Adobe Flash Player Update" and navigated to Adobe's authentic website and performed the update from there.

One thing I want to point out, and will have a separate blog post for this, pay attention to any added software being included with the update/install. In the 2nd picture/example, you see Adobe is trying to bundle additional software with the flash update. If it were me, I would not install the add-ons. If I wanted the software, I would perform the same steps as described above. I would navigate to the company's website and download the software from there. I wouldn't install it as an add-on.