‘Routine internet searches can expose your PC to malware’

Beware! Your PC is not safe. Even a routine Internet search, especially for a hot topic, might lead your computer into the hands of hackers.

Not just dubious online advertisements and leading or attractive download offers, experts feel that usual search queries could expose your system to cyber criminals.According to experts, in a testimony to the rising threat posed by cyber criminals, many Internet search results on latest skirmishes in the Korean peninsula led the users to links of malwares and fake anti-virus software.Trend Micro, a leading network antivirus and internet content security software and services provider, in the wake of exchange of fire between North and South Koreas, found that some internet search results on the topic itself were hacked.

”...Within several hours of the cross-border incident, search results related to the subject of the clash, had been poisoned by scammers. Hijacks were detected for both English and Korean languages,” Trend Micro said.

The firm noted that the hijacked search results routed users to fake URLs, that directed users to download fake anti-virus applications which were infected by viruses.Fake ActiveX control or a Flash Player update, were used to convince internet users that their computers have been infected by viruses.Last week, North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells on a South Korean island, killing four persons and triggering an exchange of fire, as southern armed forces went on their highest state of alert.The fake antivirus variant seen in this attack is detected as TROJ_FAKEAV.SMRY, and that the company was already blocking the sites hosting the malicious files.The shelling, one of the worst incidents between the two countries in years, is being used by cybercriminals behind fake antivirus malware.

According to research reports, the increase of internet users globally, the spam is also increasing and it continued to grow between January and June 2010, with a brief lull during April.According to reports, malicious URLs increased from 1.5 billion in January to over 3.5 billion in June.North America sourced the most malicious URLs, while Asia-Pacific had the most victims of malware infections. The top URLs blocked by Trend Micro were adult websites, as well as sites that hosted malicious variants such as IFRAME code, TROJ_AGENT, and JS_DLOADR.ATF.