Did you know that roughly 22% of Google searches for popular news items will give you malicious links … but that’s an estimate, because really big news items most probably have a higher percentage.
So what up?
Well, for the last three or four years, search results have been manipulated to offer you malicious downloads … most of the hackers in the mix here are affiliated with scareware outfits in the Ukraine, Russia and elsewhere and have been smart enough to automate it all.
Here are some topical examples …
- Search for Kate Middleton, and malicious downloads are offered to surfers under the guise of a Firefox update, as explained in a blog post by GFI Software here.
- Prince William-themed search terms have also been poisoned, in many cases towards redirecting surfers towards sites touting rogue anti-virus (scareware). – read about that here.
So … when offered downloads … be skeptical … you just might end up drinking from a poisoned chalice.