Searches related to Williams rant leading to Malware

by Steve Ragan - Sep 14 2009, 20:50

Criminals can be so predictable sometimes. As national and global news continues the coverage over Tennis star Serena Williams, and her threatening rant aimed at a line judge during her appearance at the US Open semi-final, criminals have hijacked search results in an effort to spread Rogue anti-Virus software.

Aside from sports fans who want the latest news, others are searching for video clips and information regarding exactly what Williams said to the line judge. During the rant, after Williams was called on a foot foul, there were clearly a few remarks made by the Tennis star about shoving a racket somewhere certain to be unpleasant. The result of the rant, as it turns out, is a $10,000 USD fine for Williams by US Open officials, and scores of people potentially infected by fake anti-Virus software.

Symantec has issued a notice that some search results linked to news over the incident are being hijacked and used to spread Rogue anti-Virus software. The SEO poisoning is just the latest attempt to capitalize on current events by the criminals to make a fast buck. More often than not, aside from simply scamming and scaring the user who is tricked or forced into installing the Rogue anti-Virus, the criminals who spread it are also paid per installation.

“The interest that this incident has stirred, provided the spark needed to ignite yet another SEO campaign to spread malware. In the case of this incident, the malware is encountered when you search for terms such as ‘Serena Williams Outburst’,” Symantec reported.

“One of the sites returned from the search goes to a domain named pixnat.com. This looks like another case of hacked web site used to host fake AV scanners leading to new variants of misleading applications.”

Last week, when President Obama gave a series of speeches, criminals hijacked the search results related to them, spreading the Rogue anti-Virus software based on various search terms that included Obama himself, and related terms, depending on where the speech took place or the context.

Over the weekend, ads on NYTimes.com led to Rogue anti-Virus, which led the news site to post a public alert warning readers.

Around the Web