Online Searches of Emmy Awards Leading to Harmful Websites

Famous antivirus provider, Norton, is cautioning users against searching for winners, fashion blunder, and juicy backstage gossip related to August 29, 2010 Emmy Awards as several common search terms have been infected by cyber criminals, to steal user's private details.

The firm stated that if a person looks for "elisabeth moss wiki" expecting to get information about the "Mad Men" actress, 57% of top 100 search results will result in harmful websites. On the other hand, looking for "Emmys 2010 wiki" will yield 25% of top 100 results resulting in harmful sites.

Besides this, other top searches directing to malware are- Eric Stonestreet bio - 37%, Julie Bowen breast hot - 35%, and Christina Hendricks measurements - 31%.

As per the company, hackers examine crucial, contemporary news topics and then attack several authentic and fake web pages with spyware, viruses, and keylogging programs, which help hackers, observe everything user types. They also infect web pages with other harmful software to control people's systems and steal their private details.

And within some hours of important pop culture events, almost 50% of search results can be infected. This implies that there is an equal chance of any user clicking on a bad as well as on a good link.

Further, it does not mean that users will start receiving flood of irritating pop-ups. The hackers do not want the user to know that they are in their system, so that they can hack as much private data before the user catches them. Consequently, several users get to know about the attack when it is too late.

Experts have recommended that hackers use thrilling headlines to make the user click on their infected links. Therefore, the users are advised to delete the mails and avoid search results from unknown people and websites. Netizens should not also presume the links and videos posted by friends on social networking websites are secure and should keep their anti-virus software updated with the most recent definitions to avoid virus troubles.

Moreover, experts have cautioned that user should keep in mind that antivirus software is not always helpful against harmful code. The attackers keep testing their code and make new variants that are not detectable until told to security vendors and included to the latest list of malware signatures or antivirus.

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» SPAMfighter News - 9/8/2010