Counterfeit Bitdefender Website Snares Victims

Bitdefender is a trusted cybersecurity and anti-virus software company that provides a variety of products to protect your computer and digital devices from malware and other online threats which is why it is particularly disturbing when scammers were recently discovered to have set up a counterfeit Bitdefender website where if you go to download what you think is protective security software from the website, you actually are downloading malware that can steal your passwords and sensitive personal information from your computer or cell phone that will result in your becoming a victim of identity theft and your accounts, such as online bank accounts hacked.

Making this story even more disturbing is that the malware used as a part of this scam is readily available for sale on the Dark Web, that part of the internet where criminals buy and sell goods and services. The internet has three distinct layers. The first is the Surface Web, where most people do searches using their standard browsers, such as Google Chrome. The second is the Deep Web, which is not indexed in standard search engines and is accessed by logging in directly to a site; it often requires authentication for access. Online banking and accessing your medical records are two examples of the use of the Deep Web. Finally, there is the Dark Web, which is only accessible through specific browsers, most commonly Tor, which encrypts all traffic and allows users to remain anonymous.

Cybercrime-as-a-service (CaaS) is the business model for cybercriminal geniuses who create and provide services for creating phony or counterfeit websites, malware and delivery systems on Dark Web sites It is on these criminal Dark Web sites where criminals sell or lease all kinds of malware, including ransomware. Other things sold on the Dark Web include login credentials to bank accounts and personal information stolen through data breaches. These Dark Web sites look amazingly like regular retail websites. They have ratings and reviews, tech support, software updates, sales and loyalty programs. Many also offer money laundering services as well. Thus even relatively unsophisticated cybercriminals can access the latest tools to commit their crimes.

Creating a counterfeit, but legitimate appearing website such as occurred with the counterfeit Bitdefender site is only the first step to accomplishing the criminal’s goal. Next, victims must be steered to the website. The sophisticated cybercriminals who design these counterfeit websites are also adept at manipulating the algorithms that determine a high position in a search engine search. They do this in several ways including stuffing their sites with keywords making the site appear more relevant to the algorithms the search engines use to determine placement in a search engine search. In other instances, the criminals merely pay the search engine to have their counterfeit website appear high in a search engine search. Payment for a high position in a search engine search is a profitable advertising tactic for search engines.

So how do you protect yourself from these phony and counterfeit websites that, particularly in the era of AI, appear to be so legitimate?

First of all, this scam points out the importance of having dual factor authentication on all of your important accounts so that even if someone managed to steal your username and password, when you provided it to the counterfeit website they would be unable to access your account with the real company.

Trust me, you can’t trust anyone. It is more important than ever when you go online to make sure that you are on the legitimate websites you seek rather than a criminal’s counterfeit website. If you know the URL of a website, make sure you type the URL in carefully to avoid going to a criminals’ website.

You can also confirm a website’s legitimacy by going to whois.com to see who actually owns the website and how long it has been in existence. The Google Transparency Report will also help indicate whether a website is legitimate or not. Another very good tool is virustotal.com which is a free online service where you provide the URL of the website you are checking on and virustotal will send the file to dozens of antivirus companies including Bitdefender to see if it is legitimate. . Also Google Chrome has its AI powered Enhanced Safe Browsing feature which will allow you to check on the legitimacy of a particular URL and will warn you if it is a scam.