Are your search results poisoned?

seoWould you even know?  I am sure that you, like me, spend some part of your working day entering words into a search engine as we try and get additional information to help us with our work tasks. The same can also be said in our own free time, wherein, we use search engines to find all manner of information to help organise and enliven our lives.

The following article caught my attention as it draws attention to the increasing focus that the cyber-criminals are putting into ‘optimising’ key words that, when put into a search engine, would lead someone to a site that they have setup and control. Once, you are on the site, they can then start to try and attack your PC directly, or by getting you to download a file that would contain malware. This whole approach is premised on them inserting themselves into legitimate terms, from there they work to optimise their sites so they appear further up the rankings, hence increasing the likelihood that someone would click through to their site.  The term that is being used to describe this attack approach is ‘search engine poisoning’. We have created a Podcast that details the motives behind search engine poisoning and provides information on how you can protect yourself.

June 2, 2009 | Filed Under Security, Technology 

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