The Internet safety vendor joined several other safety firms, including Blue Coat in addition to BitDefender, to warn users searching online for Halloween-related topics.
"Popular search damage cause got ever been a target for cyber-criminals," said Achal Khetarpal, manager of CyberDefender Research Labs.
CyberDefender identified a imitation anti-virus Trojan downloader infecting pages that come upwards up when searching for Halloween costumes. When users province on these infected pages, the imitation anti-virus installer hijacks the user’s Web browser in addition to initiates a malicious process, CyberDefender said. The infected PC becomes sluggish in addition to slow-performing patch exposing personal data, according to the company.
One form, identified yesteryear Panda Labs, displays a imitation video thespian page in addition to asks the user to download a codec inwards lodge to play the video.
Popular search damage reverberate what users are interested inwards at that time, making it a lucrative target. Criminals oftentimes practise pages that are highly search engine optimized, amongst keywords reflecting currently pop search terms, said Khetarpal.
Called SEO poisoning, hackers practise these pages that Google in addition to other search engines selection upwards thinking they are legitimate, in addition to provide them when users type inwards the search terms, said CyberDefender.
According to Panda Labs, searching for Halloween costumes, Halloween decorations, Halloween ideas, Adult Halloween costumes, in addition to Free pumpkin pattern, tin provide search results amongst malicious links.
Blue Coat said clicking on the infected link lands users on a page hosted inside a hacked blog, which in addition to hence redirects users to a malware distribution site. Users are presented amongst a download for an executable file amongst a advert that was constructed based on the master search term, said Blue Coat. For example, users typing "Regis in addition to Kelly Halloween show" inwards the search engine volition run into a filename similar "regis-and-kelly-halloween-show-2009-to-play-40064," or "office appropriate Halloween costumes" returning "office-appropriate-halloween-costumes-to-play-40064," said Blue Coat.
According to the screenshot of malicious search results posted on the Panda Labs blog, the listed URL looks legitimate, amongst phrases similar "halloween-costumes" embedded inwards the URL, in addition to the page advert too looks relevant, such every bit "Viking Halloween costume." The description is a giveaway, since it seems to non cause got anything to practise amongst the page.
According to BitDefender, "If you’re planning to honour templates for Halloween invitations, or if you’re trying to honour a impress store for what you lot already have, in addition to hence you lot should proceed an midpoint on what search results you’re well-nigh to click."
Khetarpal advised users to manually type the Web site URL, instead of only clicking on links displayed on the Google search results page. For example, if the search results page demonstrate a Halloween costume at Target, users should type target.com inwards the address bar in addition to search inside the store’s Web site instead of clicking on the link directly. This way, users won’t live re-directed to an infected site, Khetarpal said.
"Users should alone click trusted links or type inwards the site address they desire into the search bar," he said.
Spammers in addition to hackers oftentimes accept wages of electrical current events, pop trends, in addition to holidays similar Halloween to target users. For example, at that spot tends to live surge inwards the book of spam amongst Super Bowl-related bailiwick lines. According to Khetarpal, holidays in addition to celebrities are "hot topics" in addition to "prime targets" for malware authors.
Khetarpal in addition to other safety experts advised users to verify they cause got a safety software suite installed on the figurer earlier going online, allow lone searching for something. The suite should live updated to its most recent version, in addition to the operating arrangement should live patched amongst the latest updates, they said.
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