In a previous post, I told you to be wary if you choose to download free antivirus software. In another post, I said that just because you will buy antivirus software instead of downloading a free one doesn’t mean you’re already safe—you must buy antivirus software only from a reputable antivirus company. But how does that relate to the former president of the Philippines?
If somebody uses a particular search term about the late president in the past few days, they would have been presented with these highly optimized malware sites in the results page: (these sites had been blocked already)
- http://{BLOCKED}-gonzales.redxhost.com/corazon-aquino-death.html
- http://{BLOCKED}sa.20x.cc/corazon-aquino-death.html
- http://{BLOCKED}rank.0adz/corazon-aquino-death.html
- http://{BLOCKED}-1.0adz.com/corazon-aquino-died.html
When the user clicks on any of those links, they’d be redirected to different sites containing malware that would then lead to the download of a fake antivirus software detected as TROJ_FAKEALRT.FK. The fake antivirus software would then possibly download more malicious files and fake antiviruses. While the sites probably would not work anymore, you need to watch out for similar tactics when searching for other terms with breakout popularity.
How would you know, then, if a link would redirect you to malicious sites distributing malware? You probably won’t. That’s why it’s worth repeating that you need anti-spyware, antivirus and firewall software installed as it would only take a few minutes of browsing before you can be infected with viruses, spyware and other malware. Your security software should be able to immediately block the connection or quarantine any questionable downloaded binary or script. And if ever you’d be redirected to a site selling—or offering for free download—antivirus software, don’t buy it; or, at least, check it first. Buy antivirus software only from a trusted company.
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