Hackers take the shine off Royal couple’s news.
It will come as little surprise to those in the IT security industry to hear that within minutes of yesterday’s announcement of the engagement of Prince William to Kate Middleton, links to malicious sites had started to appear in
Google
searches relating to the happy couple’s news.
According to the
Sunbelt
blog
a search for ‘kate middleton’ turned up a poisoned link suggesting the user should download a
Firefox
update – which of course was a trojan rather than a browser update.
Meanwhile, the
Tech Herald
reports
that, the terms ‘prince william engagement’, ‘kate middleton prince william’, ‘royal wedding prince william’, and other similar variations, all turned up links to compromised sites.
Sophos
researchers have also posted a
video
of a ‘kate middleton’/’prince william’ SEO attack which spreads fake anti-virus software.
A recent report by security firm
Websense
suggested that users are now more likely to encounter malicious search results when searching for emerging news stories than when surfing for porn, with 22.4% of all searches for current news leading to poisoned results. With the Royal engagement look set to remain firmly in the media’s focus in the coming weeks and months, many more instances of search poisoning can be expected.
Are your end-users aware of the risks of clicking on search engine results? It has long been recognized that the user is the weakest link in the security chain. Learn practical ways to strengthen the weakest link at the VB Seminar 25 Nov, London.
The free
VB Seminar
takes place at the IET London, UK from 9am to 4pm on 25 November 2010. Secure your place by
booking online now
.
Posted on 17 November 2010 by
Virus Bulletin
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