Winwebsec is a category of malware that targets the users of Windows operating systems and produces fake claims as genuine anti-malware software, then demands payment to provide fixes to fictitious problems.
These are programs that generate misleading alerts and false detections in order to convince users to purchase illegitimate security software. Some of these programs, including Win32/Winwebsec, may display product names or logos of some well-known companies like Microsoft in an attempt to impersonate some genuine products of legitimate companies.[1][2][3]
The software shows popup that claim to scan for malware, and displays fake warnings similar to:[4]
"Potentially dangerous files were found on your system during the last scan! It is strongly recommended that you remove them immediately. Activation is highly recommended".
They then show a message to the user that they need to pay money to activate the software in order to remove these threats which actually don’t exist. This malware may display a dialog that looks similar to Windows Security Center or it may have names like Live Security Platinum [5] or Security Shield. The GUI varies from variant to variant.[6][7]
Microsoft security software detects and removes this family of threats.