More Trending Topics Exploited to Push Fake AVs

Security researchers warn that the black hat search engine optimization campaigns used to poison search results and push rogue security software continue to hijack more subjects of interest. Users searching for Patrick Swayze's untimely death, Serena Williams' outburst at the US Open or the blackout of Cincinnati Bengals are likely to encounter malicious links.

Patrick Swayze, the American actor, dancer and singer, who achieved fame for the lead roles in movies such as “Dirty Dancing” and “Ghost” passed away yesterday after fighting pancreatic cancer for twenty months. Hearing the sad news, a lot of people rushed to the Internet to find more information about his death and search for memorable scenes from the movies he starred in.

Unfortunately, cybercrooks are constantly watching for search trending topics and adjust their campaigns accordingly in order to target as many users as possible. “Although the entertainment world mourns his loss, heartless hackers are taking advantage of the hot news story by creating malicious webpages that lead to fake anti-virus (also known as scareware) alerts,” Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at antivirus vendor Sophos, warns.

A similar tactic has also been used to poison search results for Serena Williams' rant during the US Open semi-final, when she threatened to shove a tennis ball down a line judge's throat, a stunt that ultimately cost her the game. “Perhaps understandably, people who missed the match on television may have turned to the internet to hunt for the fruity footage. However, be careful what you click on - as [...] some sites claiming to contain video evidence of Serena Williams losing her cool may carry malicious code,” Mr. Cluley advises.

Meanwhile, Craig Schmugar, a threat researcher for McAfee Avert Labs, announces that people interested in the Cincinnati Bengals blackout have also been targeted. “From what I'm seeing they are pretty indiscriminate. It doesn't matter what the topic is. If people are searching for it, then the bad guys want to poison the results,” he notes, adding that “The speed at which these links appear suggests the operation is largely automated.”

It seems that BHSEO campaigns have become a favorite method of distributing scareware and the fact that almost every popular subject is targeted suggests that it is working. For example, last Friday, we reported that search results for the September 11 attacks memorial were being poisoned.

With the holidays coming up, security experts advise all users to exercise extra caution when searching for information about any popular topic on the Internet. People should start relying on their common sense in order to avoid schemes like this, especially since antivirus vendors seem to lag one step behind the cybercrooks when it comes to blocking these malicious links.