SpySheriff (also known as BraveSentry 2.0, among other names) was malware that disguised itself as anti-spyware software created by Innovative Marketing Inc. or under alternate name Innovagest 2000. It attempted to mislead the user with false security alerts, threatening them into buying the program. Like other rogue antiviruses, after producing a list of false threats, it prompted the user to pay to remove them. The software was particularly difficult to remove, since it nested its components in System Restore folders, and also blocked some system management tools. However, SpySheriff could b
SpySheriff (also known as BraveSentry 2.0, among other names) was malware that disguised itself as anti-spyware software created by Innovative Marketing Inc. or under alternate name Innovagest 2000. It attempted to mislead the user with false security alerts, threatening them into buying the program. Like other rogue antiviruses, after producing a list of false threats, it prompted the user to pay to remove them. The software was particularly difficult to remove, since it nested its components in System Restore folders, and also blocked some system management tools. However, SpySheriff could be removed by an experienced user, antivirus software, or by using a rescue disk.
==Websites== SpySheriff was hosted at both www.spysheriff.com and www.spy-sheriff.com, which operated from 2005 until their shutdown in 2008. Both domains are now parked. Several other similarly-named websites also hosted the program but have all been shut down.
Discovered by embedding cosine similarity (sentence-transformers MiniLM, 384-dim).