Easter-related malicious sites appear on search engine results

Symantec's Parveen Vashishtha claimed that with the Easter holidays just over two weeks away, attackers have already started to poison search engine queries to redirect users to websites that deliver misleading applications.

Symantec claimed that various search keywords related to Easter have been poisoned in internet search results, so that links to rogue websites are returned in the search listings.

Examples of poisoned keywords include Easter verse, Popular Easter Bible verse scriptures, Easter greeting card verses, and Easter Bible verses.

Vashishtha said: "These bogus domains are hosting malicious scripts that redirect users to websites delivering misleading applications. The script redirects users to a website that displays a fake anti-virus ‘scan' screen and delivers a rogue application.

"Many of these bogus domains in question are currently redirecting to wikipedia.org, which most likely means that the attackers will change the redirection to point to malicious domains sometime in the future."