Reports have emerged of compromised or scam websites hosting fake Flash Player updaters that include the notorious Locky ransomware. See how you can stay safe and spot a fake updater.
The latest report on this is a scam website that is hosting the fake flash updater claiming it is real. They are most likely trying to trick users into going to this site through phishing or other means, and upon arriving the malicious FlashPlayer.exe downloads onto your machine.
Immediately your red flag should be raised if it wasn’t upon getting to the site. You should be very skeptical of a website that automatically throws a download into your computer that you didn’t request. After the download, upon executing the file that appears to be an updater you would actually be infected with the Locky ransomware and your files would be encrypted.
How You Can Stay Safe
If you’re a PC Matic user, this executable would be blocked as it would not be on our whitelist of known good applications. Additionally, PC Matic will update your vulnerable apps including Flash Player during a scan and clean. By using the scan and clean you are ensuring that the update is coming from a secure and safe source. You can always steer clear of these updater scams knowing that we handle your vulnerable apps for you.
