Are you searching in vain?
- TAGS:IBM X-Force, JavaScripts, malicious
- IT TOPICS:Security
Malicious JavaScripts are increasingly being launched by legitimate websites that have been fooled into running them. According to this article in USA today "Google searchers could end up with a new type of bug" that IBM's X-Force security division manager David Dewey says only one or two hackers are able to hack dozens of major websites.
I think it's particularly threatening because so many of us use search engines time and again on a daily basis. After you click on what you think is a good result of your search query, the link may rightly lead you to the desired site, but unbeknownst to you, it will possibly also redirect you to a server that'll lodge some malware onto your system. The stuff your computer can "catch" can cause it to be manipulated by hackers to spread spam or it can be embedded with a keystroke logger that will reap all that you type on your keyboard.
The article authors Byron Acohido and Jon Swartz point out that most Google search results aren't tainted, but then they do note that more than one researcher acknowledges that "several hundred thousand corrupted Web pages returned in common Google search queries."
In my opinion, that's several hundred thousand corrupted pages too many and it leads me to stress the importance of taking seriously the ubiquitous advice to keep anti-virus up-to-date.
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