Bieber used in BlackHat SEO campaign to spread Malware

by Steve Ragan - Aug 19 2010, 09:00

Justin Bieber, the pop star everyone loves to hate, can’t seem to escape the negative attention that comes his way. When he isn’t being mobbed by tween-aged girls, he is being singled out by criminals pushing ridiculous search terms with his name to spread Malware.

According to Panda Labs, Justin Bieber is the name attached to more than 200 malicious websites that are spreading MySecurityEngine, a known Rogue anti-Virus application, to anyone who visits them.

In order to attract page views, criminals have deployed BlackHat SEO techniques, similar to those we’ve reported on in the past, actively poisoning search results related to Beiber’s name as well as some interesting search terms.

Some of the search terms are below

Justin Bieber smoking weed
Justin Bieber arrested
Justin Bieber dies
Justin Bieber drinking problem
Justin Bieber I’m gay!

“There is nothing new about the way this infection operates. When somebody runs a search for this singer on the Internet, these fake websites have been indexed to appear among the first results displayed,” Panda explains.

“If users click these links, they will be prompted to accept the download of a file, such as a codec, and the fake antivirus will be installed on their computers.”

These types of activities have become increasingly common, said Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs.

“By positioning websites used to distribute Malware among the first results in search engines, they can be sure that numerous Internet users will inadvertently download the fake antivirus”.

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