Redpill

Redpill or Spyware.Redpill is a spyware program that originally was designed for the semi-legitimate purpose of detecting cheating romantic partners – however, current attacks by Redpill appear to have become much more invasive than previously, with Redpill stealing information related to bank accounts, e-mail addresses and other personal data. As a background process, Redpill is designed to operate undetectably even as Redpill monitors and steals highly-confidential data that could be used to hijack accounts, transfer money and cause a range of other issues. Redpill should be considered a high-level threat, as with most types of spyware, and SpywareRemove.com malware researchers strongly recommend using anti-malware programs whenever finding or deleting Redpill is required.

Peering Down Redpill's Rabbit Hole of Digital Theft

The original Redpill was a spyware utility that claimed to be functional for seemingly-legal purposes, but recent evidence has shown that the Redpill project clearly has evolved past its beginnings into even murkier grounds. Redpill attacks may be used to steal any of the following types of information:

• Bank account information, including login names and passwords.
• E-mail addresses.
• The login names and passwords for various social networking accounts (Facebook, etc.).
• Redpill captures screenshots, particularly whenever a text document file is opened.

Besides making the mistake of installing Redpill to keep an eye on your wife or husband, Redpill also may be installed via spam e-mail. The relevant e-mail messages disguise Redpill as a different kind of file that's included as an attachment. Launching the attachment, besides installing Redpill, also will generate a generic error message that may lead a victim to think that nothing dangerous has happened – a simple but effective social engineering-based defense to delay Redpill's detection.

Spitting out This Spyware Pill

Redpill has been distributed to several countries, but SpywareRemove.com malware experts consider residents of India and neighboring regions to be, by far, at most risk of being infected by Redpill. As secondary targets, Canada and Western Europe (excluding the UK) also have been confirmed as targets of Redpill campaigns. Since Redpill launches automatically and conceals itself while Redpill gathers information, detecting Redpill without suitable anti-malware programs can be, at best, a challenge.

Of course, anti-malware programs also should be used to delete Redpill once Redpill is detected. Interestingly, Redpill's e-mail address for receiving stolen information appears to be hardcoded, which prevents Redpill from being changed even if the address ever is terminated. This could be indicative of the Redpill campaign either being a short-lived one, of totally new variants of Redpill being planned for the future, or of the malware coder simply being somewhat incompetent.

Deleting confirmed infection vectors for Redpill always is the best method of protecting your computer from Redpill spyware-based attacks, but in all cases, you also should enact appropriate passive types of anti-malware security. As a symptomless and stealth-based PC threat, Redpill shouldn't be regarded as being detectable visually.

Technical Details