Category Archives: Blackhat SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the fine art of tweaking a Web page so it ranks highly for relevance in search results. When this behavior is used to promote Web links which engage in hostile acts against visiting computers, we call it Blackhat SEO.

Pharmaceutical scammers launch their own Web contest

February 10, 2012 – 6:13 pm

By Dancho Danchev What are pharmaceutical scammers up to? From active participation in black hat search engine optimization campaigns, to spamvertising of bogus links – including QR Codes – and compromising of web sites with high page rank in order to redirect to pharmaceutical scams, scammers are keeping themselves pretty busy in order to monetize as much [...]

By ddanchev | Also posted in social engineering, spam | Leave a Comment

Rogues of the Week: XP Total Security & MS Removal Tool

April 18, 2011 – 9:00 am

By Andrew Brandt It’s been said that sunlight sanitizes almost everything it shines on. Beginning this week, and every week from now on, we’ll focus a concentrated beam on the rogue antivirus programs our support staff and Threat Research team have been working to remediate. Rogues have a tendency to switch up their names, user [...]

By mguthrie09 | Also posted in Destructive behavior, Rogue Security Products, social engineering, spam, Stupid malware tricks, Threat Research, Trojans | Comments (9)

Facebook-Spamming Worm Wants Your Eyeballs

April 6, 2011 – 4:15 pm

(Update, July 11, 2011:  On May 25, 2011, we were contacted by representatives of Future Ads, LLC, the parent company of both Playsushi and Gamevance.  Future Ads informed us that they, too, had been victims of a scam perpetrated by rogue affiliates who seemed to be involved with the malicious campaigns we described in this [...]

By mguthrie09 | Also posted in social engineering, social networks, spam, Stupid malware tricks, Threat Research | Comments (5)

Spammed YouTube Comments Promote Adware – Successfully

March 8, 2011 – 3:43 pm

(Update, July 11, 2011:  On May 25, 2011, we were contacted by representatives of Future Ads, LLC, the parent company of both Playsushi and Gamevance.  Future Ads informed us that they, too, had been victims of a scam perpetrated by rogue affiliates who seemed to be involved with the malicious campaigns we described in this [...]

By mguthrie09 | Also posted in adware, hijack search results, Search engines, social engineering, social networks, spam, Stupid malware tricks, Threat Research | Comments (4)

10 Threats from 2010 We’d Prefer Remain History

January 1, 2011 – 3:32 pm

By Andrew Brandt With 2010 finally behind us, and an unknown number of cyberattacks likely to come in the new year, I thought I’d run down a brief list of the malicious campaigns criminals pulled off last year that I’d really dread to see anyone repeat. Now that they’re in the past, they should stay [...]

By mguthrie09 | Also posted in Backdoors, Botnet activity, Destructive behavior, Enterprises, Firefox, Gaming threats, Internet Explorer, Keyloggers, Online shopping threats, Passwords, phishing, Phishing Trojans, Rogue Security Products, social engineering, social networks, spam, Stupid malware tricks, Threat Research, Trojans, Website owners | Comments (1)

Fake Firefox Update is a Social Engineering Triple Fail

December 21, 2010 – 4:49 pm

By Andrew Brandt Where’s the work ethic, malware geniuses? If this latest example of shenanigans is the best you can deliver, you’re not even trying to generate convincing scams — or even something that makes sense — anymore. One of our Threat Research Analysts pointed me to a Web page hosting a fake update program [...]

By mguthrie09 | Also posted in Downloaders, Firefox, Internet Explorer, social engineering, Stupid malware tricks, Threat Research | Comments (5)

Internet Misuse: Bandwidth Does Matter

December 14, 2010 – 1:23 pm

By Ian Moyse, EMEA Channel Director Recent studies demonstrate that upwards of 25% of Internet bandwidth in an office are consumed by employees misusing the internet. According to Gartner, the average growth of business email volume is 30% annually, with the average size of the email content growing in parallel. Add to this the growth [...]

By imoyse | Also posted in Botnet activity, Destructive behavior, Enterprises, Website owners | Comments (1)

Five Reasons You Should Always “Stop. Think. Connect.”

October 4, 2010 – 9:27 am

By Andrew Brandt Today’s the official kickoff for National Cyber Security Awareness Month, and the organizations supporting the event, including the National Cyber Security Alliance, the Anti-Phishing Working Group, and dozens of corporate citizens including Webroot, want you to protect your computer and your personal information. So they’ve come up with a three word campaign [...]

By mguthrie09 | Also posted in adware, Botnet activity, Destructive behavior, Firefox, Gaming threats, Internet Explorer, Keyloggers, malware, Online shopping threats, Passwords, phishing, Rogue Security Products, Search engines, social engineering, social networks, spam, Stupid malware tricks, Trojans, Website owners | Comments (19)

Epic Malware Dropper Makes No Attempt to Hide

September 21, 2010 – 3:09 pm

By Andrew Brandt In the world of first-person shooter games, getting the most headshots – hits on the opponent which instantly take the opponent’s avatar out of the game — is a prized goal. The headshot is the quickest way to dispatch a foe in virtually every shooter, which is why the file name of [...]

By mguthrie09 | Also posted in Ad-clickers, adware, Backdoors, Destructive behavior, Downloaders, Keyloggers, social engineering, spam, Stupid malware tricks, Threat Research, Trojans | Leave a Comment

New Rogue Is Actually Five Rogues in One

September 16, 2010 – 1:32 pm

By Andrew Brandt For years, the makers of those snake oil security programs we call Rogue Security Products have spent considerable effort making up new names, developing unique graphic design standards, and inventing backstories for their utterly useless, expensive scam products. Now a new rogue has taken this never ending shell game one step further, [...]

By mguthrie09 | Also posted in Internet security industry, Ransomware, Rogue Security Products, Search engines, social engineering, Stupid malware tricks, Threat Research | Comments (4)
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