Explore the latest news and trends  

Sign up for our weekly security newsletter


Be the first to receive important updates on security





Send

‘News’ Search Yields More Malware Compared to ‘Porn’ Search

According to Websense's just released 2010 Threat Report, the chances for an online search for current news and breaking trends leading onto malware-distributing websites are more than that of searching for porn and other objectionable content.

Specifically, data from Websense discloses that an online search, which looks for current news and breaking trends, is 22.4% times likely to lead onto infected or poisoned websites compared to search for porn, which is merely 21.8% times likely to lead onto infected or poisoned sites.

Further, it was found that, around 80% of websites with malicious code were legal websites that have been hacked. 52% of data compromising attacks were executed over the Web World, as reported by PC ADVISER on November 10, 2010.

Recently, PandaLabs too reported that hackers set up 57,000 fresh websites on a weekly basis so they can contaminate Web-surfers with malware.

State the security company's investigators that online crooks exploit specific search phrases associated with trending news to create these malicious sites' URLs. If Web-surfers do a search using these phrases, they'll find a web-link leading onto the malevolent site amidst the results thus obtained. Thereafter going to these malevolent websites lead to malware getting pulled down and installed on the surfers' PCs alternatively, these websites impersonating legitimate sites so that the surfers are duped into feeding personal information.

Apparently, malware writers, according to the report, concentrated on breaking news and entertainment buzz. Some examples of cunningly maneuvered results on search engines that drove users onto fake web-links with a higher rate of returns compared to the legitimate results were the Chile and Haiti earthquakes, the World Cup football game, and the death of Corey Haim.

And just as it happened during 2009, the botnets responsible for these spam scams are being assigned a fresh purpose after the illegal scams are eliminated from the series of search returns.

As a result, the security investigators forecast that combined attacks will increase in number all through 2011 as well as more-and-more genuine smart phone applications will increase which will be freshly arranged for executing phishing and spam attacks.

Related article: “Loopholes did not cause online banking thefts”: ICBC

» SPAMfighter News - 11/18/2010

3 simple steps to update drivers on your Windows PCSlow PC? Optimize your Slow PC with SLOW-PCfighter!Email Cluttered with Spam? Free Spam Filter!

Dear Reader

We are happy to see you are reading our IT Security News.

We do believe, that the foundation for a good work environment starts with fast, secure and high performing computers. If you agree, then you should take a look at our Business Solutions to Spam Filter & Antivirus for even the latest version of Exchange Servers - your colleagues will appreciate it!

Go back to previous page
Next