It feels like the Old West. Bandits are creating false trails to draw unsuspecting travelers into an ambush. No, this is not a John Wayne film at the local theater. It is a modern-day bandit, and the story is playing out in your computer.
PandaLabs said on Wednesday that "cyber-criminals" are setting up fake search engines all around the Internet. All of these engines direct any search you make to pages loaded up with malware. These modern bandits create false search engines to snare people looking for "swine flu" information, as well as any sort of celebrity gossip. You may see pop-up ads enticing you to use these "search engines." Once you go to these false search engines and click on any link, malware is downloaded to your computer. Much of the malware redirects you to porno sites.
Luckily, the prevention is simple: don't do it. Stick with the search engines you have known and trusted for a long time: go to Google or Yahoo or Ask.com or Lycos or any other well-known search engine. They are all safe. Avoid the search engines you have never heard of.
The main thing you need to know to keep yourself safe online is to stay away from anything that asks you to download or upgrade to the latest version of 'Web Media Player'. Whatever happens, DO NOT DOWNLOAD WEB MEDIA PLAYER. It is poison to your Windows computer.
The Web Media Player is for Windows only. Macintosh and Linux users don't need to worry about this particular problem although it is theoretically possible that new Mac and Linux-specific malware products could be introduced at any time. Everyone should be cautious.
You can read more on the PandaLabs blog at: http://pandalabs.pandasecurity.com/archive/Swin-flu-and-the-Blackhat-SEO-techniques.aspx.
