Cyber criminals behind the Rogueware epidemic have been hard at work in poisoning search results to increase traffic to their campaign sites. Today, we identified a new Blackhat SEO campaign, which is currently targeting Halloween related keywords aggressively. While studying the campaign, I noticed that the most commonly targeted keywords were classic costume favorites, such as the Cat woman costume, vampire costume, and various adult costumes. In addition to costumes, the BHSEO campaign also targets Halloween related food recipes, haunted house directions, Halloween parties, and the movie Halloween.
Tainted search results:
Fake Antivirus site:
Tag cloud of targeted search terms:
As we have documented in prior blog posts, Blackhat SEO continues to be one of the most prevalent and pervasive attack vectors on the Internet today. As users, we tend to trust search engines to provide safe and accurate search results, but the reality is that today, search engines are becoming the most dangerous way to browse the Internet.
Panda Security specializes in the development of endpoint security products and is part of the WatchGuard portfolio of IT security solutions. Initially focused on the development of antivirus software, the company has since expanded its line of business to advanced cyber-security services with technology for preventing cyber-crime.
