Black-hat SEO

Google has launched a new service that notifies web surfers in search results if a website they may visit has been compromised.

Web security firm Zscaler has released a free Firefox add-on designed to protect users against black hat search engine optimization (SEO), a tactic cybercriminals use to get their malicious links to appear at or near the top of search results. The add-on works by changing the referrer string of a visitor so that a malicious site is unable to tell if the user surfed in via a search engine, such as Google, Bing or Yahoo, the company said in a blog post Friday. Typically SEO sites direct users to malicious pages, such as fake anti-virus sites, if they detect a search referral URL. — DK

An upcoming report from Google details the persistent threat posed by fake anti-virus software, which currently accounts for 15 percent of all web-based malware.

Spammers are on the Valentine's Day prowl already, and more ploys are expected, researchers at Trend Micro said Monday.

Cybercriminals have launched a black hat search engine optimization (SEO) campaign to exploit the earthquake in Haiti, according to security researchers at anti-virus company Panda Security. Searches for "Haiti earthquake donate" or "Haiti earthquake donation" yield malicious links leading to rogue anti-virus products, Luis Corrons, lead researcher at PandaLabs, said in a blog post Wednesday. SEO campaigns are common: Two ongoing ones are leveraging the movie "Avatar" and Google's new Nexus One smartphone. — AM