Scammers Swap Google Images for Malware
Summary: Attackers compromised an unknown number of sites with scripts that auto-generate pages stuffed with Google Trends search terms and third-party images, which Google's Image Search bots then index so tainted thumbnails appear beside legitimate results. SANS handler Bojan Zdrnja said clicking one sends a request to the bad page, whose script checks the referrer field for Google and redirects the browser to a site serving fake anti-virus software.
Bottom line: Researcher Denis Sinegubko estimated more than 5,000 hacked sites averaging about 1,000 bogus pages each, with Google referring roughly a half million visits to fake anti-virus sites every day - about 15 million a month - and one Croatian site with a prior page rank of zero drew 140,000+ Google Image visitors in five weeks.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
- Topics
- Data Breaches
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