Can one Google search become the goal of hackers? According to the cybersecurity firm Sofos, yes. In particular, if you enter this 7 -words question in the search engine: ‘Are Bengali cats legal in Australia?’ Users who perform it are being victims of a particular cyber attack and, in some cases, they have seen their stolen personal information After clicking fraudulent links that appear positioned in the first search results.
‘Victims are usually attracted to clicking malicious adware or links disguised as legitimate content, or, in this case, A legitimate search on Google‘, explains Sofos. These dangerous links only appear in the search results when the word is included ‘Australia’which means that residents in that country run the greatest risk of attack in this case.
Once users click on a search result that seems legitimate, their personal information, such as bank data, can be stolen through a program known as Gootloader. This program can also Block user access to your own computeraccording to Sopos.
Why is it alarming, even if it is a very specific search?
If you don’t look for Bengalís cats on Google, maybe you may think you are safe. But this case indicates a much more draft trend, and it is no longer necessary It can happen with harmless searches.
What is “SEO poisoning”
Sofos points out the increase in this practice known as ‘Seo poisoning’. SEO (acronym in English of Search Engine Optimization or optimization for search engines) is the Set of techniques and strategies used by websites for positioning their contents in Google search resultsand that includes aspects such as the use of adequate keywords, the structure of the content, the external links to the own website or the load speed, among others.
The ‘SEO poisoning’ is a more dangerous cybercounts’ strategy than others, since Use the authority that is supposed to the results of a Google search to direct the user to sites controlled by them and that they have previously positioned, so that they appear as The first or one of the first answers that the search engine gives. Can also be done by publishing Fraudulent ads that Google shows before the organic search results, as Sofos points out.
‘SEO poisoning is a tactic used by cybercriminals to manipulate the results of the search engines and then direct users to malicious websites that often seem genuine‘, explains about this tactic Jake Mooreglobal cybersecurity advisor in ESETto the Daily Mail newspaper. ‘When users click on these links, they are taken to sites that expose them to malware that is generally discharged immediatelycompromising equipment safety and potentially causing data theft or infections on the device ‘.