When a user seaches for information on the recent solar eclipse, the results may contain links to scareware-hosting sites.
The ruse is not the first to capitalise on celestial events. For example, after a blood-red lunar eclipse in February 2008, hucksters tried to lure users into downloading malware onto their systems.
In a post on the TrendLabs Malware Blog, senior threat researcher Joey Costoya - who is credited with discovering the attack - described how the latest scam works:
“When users query the phrase ‘solar eclipse 2009 in America' in popular search engines, certain top ranking sites would redirect users to a malicious site under the domain name antispyware-scannerv3, which is where the malware is hosted," Costoya claimed.
Last week's eclipse, with a trajectory over China and India, was the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century.
See original article on scmagazineus.com
Malware served up thanks to solar eclipse
By
Chuck Miller
on Jul 27, 2009 3:15PM
In a reprise of an old trick, cybercriminals are using SEO poisoning to attract victims to a rogue software site, according to Trend Micro.
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