How are attackers improving search engine optimization to push rogue security tools malware?”
Poisoning search engines result to trick users into visiting malicious sites is not a new tactic. But as an analysis by AVG Technologies shows, it can be very effective. Examining a rogue spyware campaign that sought to take advantage of interest in the earthquake in Samoa last week, AVG determined that it took just 24 hours for attackers to get their malicious links in Google’s top 10 search results. “The first reports of the Samoan earthquake hit my inbox on Sep 29th at about 4pm EST ,” blogged Roger Thompson, chief of research at AVG. “By about 7pm EST, the next day, we started noticing hits on rogue spyware from Google queries. When we looked, we found they had five or six of the top ten results on the Google search results page, well above even places like CNN and The Guardian on queries like ‘Samoan Tsunami.'” Those who clicked on the links to the malicious sites were led to a Website that tried to get users to install a bogus anti-malware program. Resource Library: Resolving Ide
Poisoning search engines results to trick users into visiting malicious sites is not a new tactic. But as an analysis by AVG Technologies shows, it can be very effective. Examining a rogue spyware campaign that sought to take advantage of interest in the earthquake in Samoa last week, AVG determined that it took just 24 hours for attackers to get their malicious links in Google’s top 10 search results. “The first reports of the Samoan earthquake hit my inbox on Sep 29th at about 4pm EST ,” blogged Roger Thompson, chief of research at AVG. “By about 7pm EST, the next day, we started noticing hits on rogue spyware from Google queries. When we looked, we found they had five or six of the top ten results on the Google search results page, well above even places like CNN and The Guardian on queries like ‘Samoan Tsunami.'” Those who clicked on the links to the malicious sites were led to a Website that tried to get users to install a bogus anti-malware program. Resource Library: The process
