Hackers exploit Osama death
By Ashley Curtis
03/05/2011
The death of terrorist Osama Bin Laden has sparked several warnings about malware and phishing attacks from hackers capitalising on the worldwide news coverage, IT Pro Portal confirmed.
Troublesome hackers have launched "SEO poisoning and adware attacks" on popular search engines like Google in order to exploit vulnerable users who believe they are looking at legitimate pictures, news articles and programs, according to antivirus firm Kaspersky.
It is hoped that firms with automated IT software like antivirus and firewalls should be safe from any accidental searches, but staff should always be on the lookout for dodgy looking pictures and websites.
Malware can pass itself off as apparently legitimate antivirus programs. However, the attacks are actually lethal and could eventually compromise valuable data - like credit card details and passwords.
Fabio Assolini, Kaspersky Lab Expert, told SecureList.com the exploits could seriously harm a computer and network: "As always, when big news appears in the press, the bad guys start black hat SEO campaigns in popular search engines trying to lure users to install Rogueware."
"It's not different this time, with the top news about Osama Bin Laden's death being everywhere. The bad guys were quite fast and started to poison [search] results in Google Images. When searching, even for images, be careful!" he added.
