Websites Exploiting Young Pop Star 'Justin Bieber' To Distribute Malware

Security researchers at PandaLabs have seized a new black hat search engine optimization (BHSEO) campaign, which infects search results related to teen pop star Justin Bieber.

Cybercriminals are distributing fake antivirus MySecurityEngine by exploiting the name of this teen sensation and pop singer in malicious links.

Unlike other such types of attacks, which exploit recent affairs and other matters attracting significant Internet search engine traffic, this campaign cooks up scandalous stories about the pop singer to attract a huge traffic.

For instance, malicious links referring to Justin Bieber include: Justin Bieber smoking weed, Justin Bieber gender change operation, Justin Bieber takes estrogen pills did Justin Bieber died, Justin Bieber arrested, etc.

When internet users search for anything related to 'Justin Bieber', these bogus websites have been tabulated to come out among the initial results showed. If the users click on these malicious links, they will be impelled to accept the download of a file, like codec and consequently bogus antivirus will be installed on the users' machine.

Panda stated that though this method was not new and had been used many times in the past to spread infection; benefiting from popular subjects like release of movie 'Iron Man 2'' or series finale of 'Lost'. Still, these fake websites appeared on top slots of search engine result lists.

Commenting on the issue, Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs, said that such kind of activities had become more common and any sensational topic or issue was used by cybercriminals to spread malware, as reported by Security watchdog on August 18, 2010.

He further stated that by placing malicious websites among the top rankings of search engines, they could be sure that various netizens would involuntarily download the fake anti-virus.

Justin Bieber has become a favorite topic for cybercriminals to use in their attacks as he has a large young fan base across the globe. For instance, recently two different Facebook survey scams were reported that utilized fake videos related to Bieber to trap users into allowing rouge applications to post from their profiles and spam their friends.

Related article: Websites – The Latest Weapon in The Hands of Phishers

» SPAMfighter News - 8/25/2010