PrivacyHidden

PrivacyHidden is malicious software that has no business being on your computer. PrivacyHidden is rogue security software from Korea, which has been causing some infections outside of the Korean market. It may be the case that the only English text visible in any of the program's interfaces or windows is the name PrivacyHidden, which can make things confusing.

Symptoms of a PrivacyHidden Infection

In terms of the symptoms that it causes, PrivacyHidden is pretty typical for a rogue security application. PrivacyHidden will set itself up to appear when Windows starts, and PrivacyHidden will show a fake user interface, where PrivacyHidden will pretend to run a system scan so that PrivacyHidden can show you a list of results. PrivacyHidden will generate a long list of detected threats, but careful examination of this list reveals the “threats” to be genuine anti-spyware or security applications and other harmless files. However, PrivacyHidden will try to get you to pay for an activated or "full" version of the program in order to remove the threats PrivacyHidden has detected, and PrivacyHidden even offers several different tiers of fake service in an attempt to make itself look more realistic.

In addition to its fake scans and bogus interface, PrivacyHidden will generate pop-up warnings and alerts, although the text of these will be entirely in Korean. PrivacyHidden will even create shortcuts on the desktop and in the Quick-launch bar, using an icon of a red shield with a gold H. What can make PrivacyHidden especially confusing for some PC users is the fact that PrivacyHidden's Korean fonts will show up as garbled nonsense if Korean font support isn't installed. Without Korean fonts installed, Windows interprets the non-Unicode characters in PrivacyHidden's alerts and shortcuts as long strings of Roman special characters. This may have the effect of alerting the user of the infected computer to the presence of malware, contrary to the purpose of the PrivacyHidden scam, which aims to trick users into believing the malware to be security software. For any users who speak Korean, and who are the targets of the PrivacyHidden malware, it is important to remember that PrivacyHidden is not trustworthy, and anything that PrivacyHidden tells you about your computer's security should be disregarded.

Details about How PrivacyHidden Infects a System, and Where it Comes from

PrivacyHidden may be downloaded directly from malicious websites that claim to offer PrivacyHidden as security software, but more commonly, PrivacyHidden infects computers without the user's knowledge. PrivacyHidden is known to spread through email, especially spam and suspicious email attachments, as well as the usual Trojans bundled with downloads of pirated material or software updates on malicious sites. It is common for PrivacyHidden to download after some other malware has installed a system backdoor.

PrivacyHidden is promoted by several malicious websites, and especially by privacyhidden.co.kr, which is the malicious site that claims to be the site for the company behind PrivacyHidden. At present, privacyhidden.co.kr has the IP address 114.108.168.8, which is hosted in Korea, on the same server as 27 other malicious sites. The domain name is registered to someone named Jung Kyung Su, and it has been since January 12, 2011.