Running illegal "cracked" software on a computer may lead to the
loss or theft of personal data, security experts have warned.
Half of all cracker programs that claim to strip the copy
protection from Microsoft's Windows Vista are
actually malware-loading Trojan apps, according to John Safa, chief
architect at security firm Drive Sentry.
"Hackers are attaching malicious programs to original cracks and
sending the mutated versions back into cyberspace," he said.
"Anyone who downloads and runs one of these infected cracks will
also unlock the malicious program, which could cause irreversible
damage to their PC or data."
Drive Sentry tested a number of Vista crack programs from
file-sharing sites, and found that nearly half attempted to load
malware onto users' systems.
While the problem is exacerbated by the malware authors and
crackers, Safa put much of the blame on Microsoft and its decision
to block developers and researchers from gaining access to Vista's
kernel.
"By claiming that it has locked down Vista, Microsoft has
effectively issued an open invitation to the hacking community to
prove it wrong," he said.
The
PatchGuard software used by Microsoft to seal off the Vista
kernel has been criticised by security researchers, who claim that
hackers will break the protections and have the ability to create
malware that security vendors will not be able to stop.
Cracker programs claiming to
strip copy protection from Windows Vista are often malware-loading
Trojan apps