John Tuyen

Adventures of Functional Mediocrity

18 Jun 24

Cyber Scarecrow: A Better Trap?

Cyber Scarecrow

When hackers install malicious software on a compromised victim, they first check to make sure its safe for them to run. They don't want to get caught and avoid computers that have security analysis or anti-malware tools on them.

Scarecrow takes advantage of this, by running in the background of your computer and 'faking' these indicators. It's super lightweight and tricks malware into thinking your computer is not the place for them to be.

Not exactly a new idea but interesting to see how the end user market responds to such a product. From a professional perspective, I wouldn't run this tool and I don't even know who they are so this product needs to build trust first. They should get this backed by a reputable organization or maybe release an opensource solution with a paid version of some kind. Ultimately, this solution is still a cat and mouse game of who can build a better trap but maybe raising the difficulty bar against adversaries is a good thing? Hard to say.