Scareware Spreads Through Trusted Internet Connection Speed Test Site

Speedtest.net was discovered as being infected with a piece of malware that automatically infects the computers of unsuspecting visitors with a fake anti-virus called Security Sphere 2012.

Armorize reveals that all the visitors of the website which have outdated browsers or browser plug-ins end up with the fake AV permanently installed on their devices.

The disturbing thing is that the malicious element spread by the website is only now being properly identified by security solutions vendors, at the time of the discovery, VirusTotal showing a result of 0/43.

As all scareware tools, Security Sphere 2012 keeps alerting the user of so-called errors that can only be fixed if a license is purchased for the app.

As it turns out, the website wasn't actually compromised, but it’s advertising platform was altered to replace each ad with a malicious element.