14 DAY TRIAL // The noise generated by the recent Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against Aiplex Software, has led to scareware distributors poisoning search results about the incidents.
It's no secret that cybercriminals monitor trending topics on Google and exploit them through black hat search engine optimization (BHSEO) campaigns in order to infect users with scareware.
The BHSEO techniques involve artificially inflating the Google PageRank of malicious websites with the purpose of pushing them at the top of search results.
Last week's news that an Indian company called Aiplex Software was hired by movie studios to attack torrent sites, that failed to comply with DMCA takedown notifications, has enraged a group of 4chan users.
Since then, the group, which calls itself "Anonymous", has launched a DDoS campaign against film and recording industry associations, anti-piracy organizations and of course Aiplex.
Panda Security, a security vendor, which monitored the attacks since they started on Saturday, estimates a total downtime of over 25 hours for aiplex.com.
However, security researchers with the company also warn that "cyber criminals are attempting to profit off of the news by poisoning search results for Aiplex, DDoS, The Pirate Bay, and 4chan."
These BHSEO-powered scareware distribution campaigns lead users to websites displaying fake antivirus-like scans and bogus warnings about malware infections.
Users are instructed to download an alleged antivirus product, which then bombards their desktops with even more security alerts about fictitious threats.
The goal of these scams is to scare victims into buying a license for an ultimately useless application, which most of the times costs more than a legit security product.
In related news, the latest victim of 4chan's "Operation Payback" is a UK-based law firm called ACS:Law Solicitors, which is actively involved in anti-piracy efforts by sending legal threats to Internet users suspected of copyright infringement.