WARLOCK

Natasha Richardson - in Loving Memory, but not by Crackers

Cybercrooks are busy creating malicious webpages and filling them with keywords related to the actress’s untimely death following a skiing accident earlier this week, according to net security firm Sophos. The ruse, which takes advantage of content scraped from legitimate news websites, is designed to create a high search engine ranking for sites harbouring malicious [...]

Cybercrooks are busy creating malicious webpages and filling them with keywords related to the actress’s untimely death following a skiing accident earlier this week, according to net security firm Sophos. The ruse, which takes advantage of content scraped from legitimate news websites, is designed to create a high search engine ranking for sites harbouring malicious code

Users who wind up happening across maliciously constructed websites will be exposed to a malicious script, categorised by Sophos as Reffor-A, designed to alarm users into purchasing a scareware package. Such scareware (fake anti-virus) packages are among the internet’s fastest growing nuisances. These applications typically attempt to frighten users into thinking their computers are riddled with malware, even if the PC is clean, as a ruse designed to trick people in purchasing ineffective clean-up tools.

Hackers regularly take advantage of breaking news story, often acting in advance of any kind of security response.

Previous situations have been during Benazir Bhutto’s death, Valentine’s Day, President Obama’s Inauguration, and others.

Recently for example, hackers exploited confusion created by the Symantec / PIFTS.EXE incident earlier this month and similar keyword stuffing tactics, to draw surfers towards rogue sites, also punting fake anti-malware scanning software.

Talk about creativity !

Read more from Sophos Blog