14 DAY TRIAL // Several black hat search engine (BHSEO) campaigns have emerged in the days after Christmas targeting several subjects of interest for Internet users. Security researchers warn that search results for the name of the "Christmas Day Bomber" or after Christmas sales have been poisoned.
News agencies from all over the world announced that, on the first day of Christmas, a Nigerian man tried to detonate a homemade explosive device in a plane en route from Amsterdam to Detroit. The topic generated a lot of search engine traffic propelling the name of the attacker, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, to the first places in Google Trends.
"Currently this search results in many links relating to the event. However amidst the first few results are maliciously crafted web links that redirect the user to Fake scan pages which in turn attempts to trick the user into downloading and installing Rogue Security Software on their machines," Akhil Menon, security researcher at CA, writes.
Rogue security software, also known as scareware, refers to computer applications that pose as antivirus programs and bombard users with bogus alerts about fictitious infections on their systems. The end goal is to trick users into paying a license fee for a useless piece of software they don't actually need.
CA also advises that other search terms related to the event, such as "Flight 253" or "Delta Flight 253," have also been targeted, as well as unrelated ones such as "Countess Vaughn Myspace," "Courtney Freil Maxim," "After Xmas Sales Laptop." Meanwhile, security researchers from antivirus vendor Panda Security warn of a particularly aggressive campaign poisoning search results for "After Christmas Sales."
"Clicking on any of the two links above will yield the typical fake security software site," Sean-Paul Correll writes on the PandaLabs blog. "The Blackhat SEO campaign does not stop here, as the cyber criminals are targeting new news items every single day," he adds.
As usual, Internet users are advised to only access content from trusted sources and have a reliable and updated antivirus solution installed.