Google warns over two million users of infected PCs

Google has warned more than two million people that their computers are infected with a virus that intercepts web searches.

The search giant Microsoft has identified the problem as a fake anti-virus program known as Fakevimes. The virus, which also goes under a number of other names including Malware Catcher 2009, Windows PC Defender, Live PC Care, Security Guard and My Security Wall, hijacks Google browser searches. It then redirects people to websites containing other fake security programs.

Since discovering the infections after noticing unusual traffic, Google will post a yellow warning: ‘Your Computer Appears to have Been Infected' - at the top of the search page of people it has identified as being infected with FakeVimes.

In its security blog the search giant said: "Recently, we found some unusual search traffic while performing routine maintenance on one of our data centers.

"After collaborating with security engineers at several companies that were sending this modified traffic, we determined that the computers exhibiting this behaviour were infected with a particular strain of malicious software, or "malware."

"As a result of this discovery, today some people will see a prominent notification at the top of their Google web search results."

On its security blog Google also tells people how to remove the malicious software from their PC, including updating their genuine security software and running a complete scan. Google's security blog also gives links to Microsoft security support pages where additional help can be found to clean a PC of the infection.