Big Drop In Fake AV

Both McAfee and Blue Coat had reported that the Fake AV scam was one of largest purveyors of malware last year. In case you're not familiar with it, basically it's a pop-up, javascript or some other injected code that notifies the end-user that their computer is infected with a virus, and offers to clean it, by paying for antivirus software, and instead of downloading a/v software, it basically downloads malware to the workstation.

Apparently by June of this year, the Fake AV sites had practically disappeared from the web. The reason for the quick drop? From ZDnet:

The event that caused the sudden plunge? A high-profile bust by Russian authorities. On June 23, a network of web sites that were distributing fake antivirus software for Windows PCs and Macs suddenly went offline when the head of the company that processed payments for the group was busted.

While the decrease is good news for end-users in general, it's expected it's only a minor hiccup in the cybercrime activity, and it's expected to ramp back up again soon, so it's no time to drop your guard in terms of protecting your end-users and network.