Malware found in newly purchased computers in Vietnam
Many new computers purchased from electronics stores in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and never used have been infected with many dangerous software, includingZeus versionnotorious
After in-depth research on computer security in the US and Southeast Asia, Microsoft continues to announce the results of a survey they conducted directly in Vietnam.
As a result, 92% of the 41 hard drives on computers with pirated Windows operating systems and 66% of the 9 installation discs studied were infected. This is the highest rate among Southeast Asian countries (on average, 86% of installation discs and 48% of computers with pirated Windows were infected with malicious code).
Among these, Zeus is a particularly dangerous software. "This is a Trojan that specializes in stealing passwords by recording keyboard characters (keylogging) and some other mechanisms to break in, access personal account identification, sensitive data... of the victim. According to RSA's 2012 Cybercrime Trends Report, Zeus has caused damage of up to 1 billion USD globally in the past 5 years," warned Mr. Vu Minh Tri, General Director of Microsoft Vietnam.
Many users were tricked into buying computers that had swapped components or installed fake software.
Another surprising finding from this study was that 50% of the hard drives in computers from leading brands (that Microsoft bought) were swapped by sellers and replaced with lower-end HDD models that contained counterfeit software. This means that, for short-term profits, some unscrupulous stores deliberately sold popular models to non-tech-savvy consumers but swapped with cheap components, pirated software containing malware instead of genuine software.
"Many consumers are unwittingly exploited by cybercriminals, which can lead to serious damage to their computers. Piracy is considered an illegal act," said Ms. Rebecca Ho, Director of Intellectual Property at Microsoft Southeast Asia.
This expert also emphasized that the notion that "buying a branded computer means ensuring absolute safety for the machine" needs to be reconsidered. Mr. Nghiem Xuan Thang, CEO of the Tran Anh dealer chain, said that to keep information safe from criminal activities, people need to carefully choose where to buy computers and electronic devices. More importantly, they should check whether these products have built-in copyrighted software or not, and consider before advertising huge promotions that are "suspiciously good".
According to Express-M
