Cory Aquino death spurs black hat SEO malware sites
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Cybercriminals looking to exploit interest in the recent death of Corazon Aquino, the populist former president of the Philippines, rapidly set up malware-bearing websites loaded with Aquino-related search terms to snag web users searching for news of the event.
Commonly referred to as black hat SEO (search engine optimization), cybercriminals use this tactic frequently to exploit popular interest in news events and pop culture, such as the death of Michael Jackson and hit movies like the Harry Potter franchise.
Web security researchers at Trend Micro found several malicious websites yesterday using black hat SEO to drive traffic into their trap, where visitors would be infected by a Trojan downloader, TROJ_FAKEALRT.FK, offering a fake antivirus product.
Spammers also use news events to lure people to click on malicious links or buy phony products, including fake antivirus rogueware.
Recently, security firm PC Tools discovered spam related to the latest Harry Potter movie promising free downloads of the movie. Users who visit the linked website were tricked into downloading Trojan malware.
PC Tools' Mike Greene told the NYtimes.com Bits blog that this kind of black hat SEO can be called "headline malware."
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