We are increasingly concerned at the number of people who seem to fall foul of bogus downloads.
There seems to be an ever increasing number of bogus websites masquerading as official sources of download software. Even common programs such as Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash Player, Google Chrome & Mozilla Firefox are known applications that have been infected by virus writers. They try to dupe people into loading their malicious code via “unofficial” websites or even a website with video content suggesting you need to “upgrade your Flash Player”. Typical examples of searches for Firefox are http://firefox.free-download.com or http://getfirefox.net when it should be http://www.mozilla.org .
These bogus sites offer everything the official sites offer, even with genuine looking Logos etc. but come complete with injected code that compromises your PC with adverts as you browse, website redirection, logging keystrokes to record account information or simply acting as a trojan for other threats. When looking for a download, try not to type the name of the application into a search engine like Google. A far safer way is to navigate to the vendors official website, if you know it, e.g. www.adobe.com to download the files directly from them.
The internet is an amazing source of information but it is not without its dangers. If you require a download of any kind and have any doubts what so ever about what you are about to download then please give us a ring. We can offer help and advice and if needed may be able to find the genuine source for the download and avoid the ever increasing threat of infections or malware.