Switchfast Blog: The Future of IT
Beware: Latest Search Malware Threat – ‘Apple iPad’
Friday, January 29, 2010 by Michael Holley
The iPad was been all over the news lately, but for curious
consumers, with great publicity can come great danger.
Part of the recent influx of cybercrime is consumer malware
delivered through fake websites that are created to trick users
into thinking they are sources of news for trending search topics.
These sites are search optimized using "black hat SEO tactics" that
get sites onto search engine results quickly. As a result of the
use of illegal optimization strategies, these sites are generally
banned from the search engines in a matter of days, but for a
malware distributor taking advantage of a hot topic, a few days is
plenty of time to do significant damage.
Predictably, there have been numerous reports of system
infections resulting from links related to the Apple iPad over the
past week or so, so you should take extra caution when searching
for news. Your best bet is to stick to the big news sources you
know you can trust - sites like CNET, Engadget, Techcrunch, or us, of course - as their
coverage is as good as any and you won't run the risk of
inadvertently downloading a nasty virus.
We'll edit this entry to include specific links to avoid if we
get reports of any.
Best,
Michael Holley
Switchfast Technologies
Chicago IT Consulting &
Support
Rochester
IT Consulting & Support
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