Depends, most of them are, especially the ones which are downloaded from some Warez of P2P.

To understand the link better, try looking for this article on 'Underground Digital Economy' I can't remember the exact title. The paper was also presented at a local security conference some years back. In the article, it mentions the existence of RBN (Russian Business Network), Hong Kong triads etc.

There's a business relationship between these 2, triads...mafia's and coders. These triads pays the coders to create the 'crack softwares' and sell them or put it on the web.

When it is installed, run in your system, the malware will hunt for, well, bank accounts,credit cards anything and report back to the coders.

The Cyber Security Agency has a team to study these malwares, among them who always at security seminars and present his finding is Yomud.

You guys should start buying licensed AV instead of downloading or buying cracked ones.

I always read or here...like the one above 'no problem', but let it be known, there's no such thing as a free lunch, your system may been, fine...ok.

Making your PC into a zombie is an money stream for them, and its big business.

There are few outcomes..

1. They will detect and block you from updating
2. Your system becomes compromise as a result of malware which is hidden inside the AV, this usually happens from AV downloaded from warez sites.

If you can afford to buy a computer, you can surely afford to buy an AV software or even download a free-version.

Here's a little anecdote for those of you who are new to RBN and the links to some cracked AV,OS or other software...



if you cracked it yourself, well still wrong but fine. If you downloaded a cracked version from some warez or P2P...or got it from your pirated software peddlers (like what Low Yat Plaza used to be)... then you're playing Russian-Roulette with your personal information etc.

This whole fiasco reminds me of a scene in Terminator 3...



Remember that line, because your cracked AV (could be) is the Virus.

This post has been edited by trifecta: Dec 28 2008, 11:57 AM