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.

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

Blackhat SEO of Google Images Links to Rogue AV

August 3, 2010 – 1:35 pm

By Andrew Brandt Yesterday, a few of the Threat Research folks and I had a little fun playing with a hack that had, for one day at least, pretty much decimated Google’s Image Search feature. One researcher, who stumbled into the attack purely by chance, found that a Google Images link to a map of [...]

By Lisa Bongiovanni | Also posted in Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Rogue Security Products, Safari, Search engines, social engineering, Stupid malware tricks, Threat Research, Trojans | Comments (11)

Modified Websites Pushing Trojans On the Rise

April 21, 2010 – 10:46 am

By Andrew Brandt For the past couple of weeks, owners of Web sites have been hit with a wave of attacks that surreptitiously infect unsuspecting visitors with a wide variety of malware types. The first wave inflicted rogue antivirus on unlucky victims, but late last week victims who visited infectious sites were redirected into a [...]

By Lisa Bongiovanni | Also posted in adware, Destructive behavior, Rogue Security Products, Stupid malware tricks, Threat Research | Comments (1)

’30 Rock’ Phrase ‘Circulus et Pruna’ Draws Fakealerts

March 30, 2010 – 1:04 pm

Every search result on the first page (and most of the second page) of results for “circulus et pruna” leads to a Fakealert trap.

By Lisa Bongiovanni | Also posted in Rogue Security Products, social engineering, Stupid malware tricks, Threat Research | Comments (2)

Fakealerts Invade Google Image Search Results for ’24′ Star

January 27, 2010 – 5:10 pm

By Andrew Brandt Searchers beware: Those photos of celebrities or funny cat pictures that turn up in your Google image search results might not be photos at all, but fake antivirus alerts. Evidence appears to indicate that a similar scam to one we blogged about last November may be working its way up the Google [...]

By Lisa Bongiovanni | Also posted in Rogue Security Products, social engineering, Stupid malware tricks | Comments (8)

Ron Paul, Beyonce Tease a Drive-By Rogue AV

December 22, 2009 – 11:28 am

By Andrew Brandt Here’s a mind-bender for you to ponder over the holidays: What do diva musician Beyonce, the massively-multiplayer game World of Warcraft, the anime series Naruto, and Libertarian politician (and failed presidential candidate) Ron Paul have in common? I couldn’t guess what you might come up with, but we’ve found a drive-by download [...]

By Lisa Bongiovanni | Also posted in Rogue Security Products, social engineering, social networks, Stupid malware tricks, Threat Research | Comments (1)

Fakealerts Target Black Friday Online Shoppers

November 27, 2009 – 1:00 pm

By Andrew Brandt Now that the turkey and pumpkin pie has settled, and everyone’s gotten a good night’s sleep, shoppers are busily hustling the Web for the best deals. I’ve been doing the same thing, and wanted to share some of my tips that may help you avoid becoming snared in the most prolific cyberscam [...]

By Lisa Bongiovanni | Also posted in Online shopping threats, Rogue Security Products, social engineering, Stupid malware tricks, Threat Research | Comments (3)

Fakealerts: Building a Better Mousetrap

November 25, 2009 – 10:48 am

By Andrew Brandt In general, the use of fakealerts – those bogus warnings that look like your PC has started some sort of antivirus scan on its own, then predict imminent doom if you don’t buy some snake oil product right this minute — is on the rise. Fakealerts constitute a particularly effective social engineering [...]

By Lisa Bongiovanni | Also posted in adware, Rogue Security Products, social engineering, Stupid malware tricks, Threat Research | Comments (7)

Rogues Mug Big Bird on his Birthday

November 4, 2009 – 12:48 pm

By Andrew Brandt In a move sure to raise the ire of Sesame Street fans everywhere, the black hat SEO gangs that have been manipulating Google results for the better part of the year have seized on a new target from which they’ve launched their current salvo of rogue antivirus guano. That’s right, the lovable, [...]

By Lisa Bongiovanni | Also posted in adware, Rogue Security Products, social engineering, Stupid malware tricks | Comments (1)

Postmortem Michael Jackson Track Dredges Rogues

October 12, 2009 – 10:47 am

By Andrew Brandt As we’ve discussed so many times in the past, search terms that include the names of celebrities make good targets for malware authors, and search terms that include the name of dead celebrities make great targets for malware authors. Now there’s a new corollary to this postulate: Search terms that include the [...]

By Lisa Bongiovanni | Also posted in Downloaders, Rogue Security Products, social engineering, Stupid malware tricks | Comments (4)
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