'Error Hard Drive Safety Delete' Pop-Ups

The 'Error Hard Drive Safety Delete' pop-ups are technical support tactics that deliver inaccurate system warnings to encourage phone conversations with con artists. Such attacks often are the spearhead points through which fraudsters may implement other ones, such as installing backdoor Trojans or collecting your credit card information. PC users should clean their browsers after any contact with this threat, by deleting temporary files associated with it and using security products to confirm they've removed the 'Error Hard Drive Safety Delete' pop-ups in their entirety.

An Error Message that's not Safe to Abide By

Just as a road trip must contend with bad traffic and potholes, even the simple act of surfing the Web isn't without its hazards. While many infection vectors and threat-based attacks trace their roots to either spam e-mail or illicit downloads, other attacks, like the 'Error Hard Drive Safety Delete' pop-ups, can be found on supposedly safe websites. Malware analysts only are confirming sightings of this format of Web tactics with the Firefox user base, but similar attacks are verifiable with all brands of browsers.

The 'Error Hard Drive Safety Delete' pop-ups are most likely to load themselves through compromised advertising networks or websites whose code has been hijacked by remote attackers. Rather than generating a new tab or window, they redirect the Web surfer's preexisting one to a corrupted URL that displays fake system information. As usual, the attack's motive lies in promoting the associated 'Microsoft' technical support hotline.

The phone numbers in use by the 'Error Hard Drive Safety Delete' pop-ups don't connect to legitimate Microsoft support, and, instead, redirect you to a con artist. Commonplace security issues malware analysts see often such encounters include the following:

• Con artists may take money or associated information by asking you to pay them for help 'fixing' your PC.
• Other threat actors more interested in attacking your computer directly may ask you to make settings changes that give them remote desktop control. Such control offers potential leverage for installing threats such as Remote Access Trojans, fake Registry cleaners, or other forms of threatening software.
• Regardless of their eventual goals, con artists deploying tactics like the 'Error Hard Drive Safety Delete' pop-ups almost always will deliver additional, inaccurate security information, such as claiming that your computer is at risk from high-level threats (like rootkits).

Getting Some Real Safety from Fake Hard Drive Problems

The 'Error Hard Drive Safety Delete' pop-ups are deployed as of early March 2017 actively, adding them to the list of numerous, similar hoaxes one may encounter while browsing the Web. Preliminary analyses by malware experts can verify that at least some versions of the 'Error Hard Drive Safety Delete' pop-ups are deploying additional scripts to prevent you from closing the browser's window. Although interacting with unsafe Web content never is advisable, victims can close the 'Error Hard Drive Safety Delete' pop-ups safely with a keyboard shortcut (such as Alt + F4) or using the Task Manager to terminate the browser's memory process.

Some cases of the 'Error Hard Drive Safety Delete' pop-ups may reoccur automatically, which may be due to temporary browser data or the presence of adware. In such scenarios, malware experts recommend closing all browsers and running full system scans with any security products able to remove both adware and threatening software. Some incidents also may require purging your Web browser's history, cookies and cache. Users removing the 'Error Hard Drive Safety Delete' pop-ups promptly through safe methods should experience no other security risks.

While con artists mimic the warning messages of legitimate software companies constantly, their victims' best protection is knowing the aesthetics of a pop-up hoax. However, for those who aren't well-informed, anti-malware protection that can block hostile Web addresses automatically also are invaluable for safeguarding their Web travels.