Labor Day 2009: Did the Mafia take over your searches in Google?

I was doing my regular daily security alert review when my eye caught this message:

Hackers use secret  SEO  techniques (Google search engine tricks) to get

their link appear on page 1 Google search results for searches related to “labor day” special sales.

Imagine this: You live in the US, you just got your labor day vacation rolling, you pick up

a cool bear from the frig and head on to your laptop to stroll around the web, looking

for labor day deals. You always tend to buy when you are on vacation…right?

And then you see this nice link in Google search, click on it, and damn! It takes

you to web page warning you that your computer is infected with Viruses.

It then invites you to download a new Anti Virus - the best they have.

All this happens as you are pooling your credit card to get ready and buy something.

Shi*** you say, I can’t put my credit card online if I have a Virus.

Why didn’t that damn Anti Virus program I have warn me about that Virus.

And then you might actually download the new (fake) Anti Virus mentioned there and actually

get a Virus or a Trojan installed on your computer…

There are many reports showing that a large percentage of the Computer Viruses

are built and set to gather personal data that will be used later on by organized crime

groups - yeh, people used to call it the “Mafia“.

My question to you is, how many times you think the Mafia takes Google each week?

Here are several tips to get you going on having better defense against the Mafia online:

1. Consider shopping in web sites you already know and have in your bookmarks.

2. Even if you use Google or other search engine to look for deals, write down the details of the deal

and then search those details in the specific site they belong to (eBay, Best Buy, whatever)

3. Use tools that I sent you in the past such as Mcaffee Site Advisor.

4. Do not ACT according to websites you visit accidentally if  they warn that your computer is in danger.

I do not know a legitimate site that would do that. If you have concerns about your Anti Virus,

try out a new one, by looking in Computing Magazines such as those I publish on the Blog here.

Here is a free Anti Virus that I like: Avira Anti Virus at: http://www.free-av.com/en/download/index.html

Health in Computing

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