As the Infosecurity Europe exhibition wound down on Thursday, security experts warned that virus writers have been busy distributing bogus security programs on the Internet.
According to antivirus company Sophos, a Trojan horse dubbed 'fakespy' was sent to many unsuspecting email users as an attachment, and has been fooling some people into believing they have a security problem with their computer.
Once opened, the program displays a warning every 13 minutes claiming that the infected computer's Internet connection is insecure and is vulnerable to hackers. It then displays a link to a fake help Web site, which when clicked on, installs a number of other malicious programs.
"It doesn't fix security problems at all," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "It's just a dirty trick as it preys on people's fears."
Sophos said it had received few reports of the Trojan by Thursday afternoon.