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Free music, screensaver' are riskiest searches on the net Free music, screensaver' are riskiest searches on the net
Some of the riskiest searches on the Internet are associated either with finding items for free, such as music or screensavers, or looking for work that can be done from home, according to McAfee, Inc. Search categories like these are used to lure unsuspecting consumers to their Web sites. Hackers and cybercriminals are often able to persuade searchers to download files carrying malicious software that can cause consumers to expose their personal and financial data.
Katrina Kaif not only sizzles on the silver screen, but the top Bollywood actress’ name has also now unwittingly become one of the most dangerous search keywords, as far as Indian net users are concerned.According to a report, finding music or screensavers for free, or looking for work that can be done from home are some of the riskiest searches on the Internet.
While browsers use billions of keywords in different search engines like Google or Yahoo! Buzz, Katrina Kaif’s name stood out the second and was classified as the second most dangerous keyword for India. Cyber criminals and hackers create websites based on popular search keywords and persuade the browsers to download files carrying malicious software which could expose their personal and financial data, a study by McAfee, the world’s leading security technology company, found.
The study to identify the most dangerous web searches found that in India the most dangerous search word was ‘Waptrick,’ a website for free downloads of music, ring tones, wall paper, animations and logos for mobile phones, followed by Katrina Kaif, Orkut, Yahoomail, Shahid Kapur, rediffmail, ‘How to earn money’, Namitha, Shimla and ‘Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.’
McAfee's report on 'The Web's Most Dangerous Search Terms' describes how cybercriminals maximise their profits by seeking the largest pool of possible victims with popular search terms about current events, gadgets and celebrities. During the recession, McAfee has observed a growing number of malicious search results targeted at people who want to save money or earn extra income working at home.
Like sharks smelling blood in the water, hackers will create related Web sites laden with adware and malware whenever a particular topic increases in popularity. Unsuspecting consumers are then tricked into downloading malicious software that leads them to blindly hand over their personal assets to cybercriminals.
McAfee researched more than 2,600 popular keywords (as defined by Google Zeitgeist, Yahoo! Buzz and others sources) to assess the degree of risk for each. As defined by McAfee, the riskiest set of keyword variations was 'screensavers' with a maximum risk of 59.1 per cent. Nearly six out of the top 10 search results for 'screensavers' contain malware. One of the single riskiest search terms in the world is 'lyrics', with a maximum risk factor of one in two. Surprisingly, searches using the word Viagra, a popular keyword that is also common in spam e-mail messages, yielded the fewest risky sites. Searches with the safest risk profile included health-related terms and searches about the current economic crisis.
Consumers looking to save money, and/or searching for means of additional income, should take note: searchers clicking on results that contain the word 'free' have a 21.3 per cent chance of infecting their PCs with online threats, such as spyware, spam, phishing, adware, viruses and other malware. 'Work from home' searches can be as much as four times riskier than the average risk for all popular terms.
Outside of the US, popular keyword categories were often significantly riskier than those popular in the US. Fourteen countries had keyword categories that exposed users to a higher maximum risk than what McAfee identified on average, including the Czech Republic (14.2 per cent) and Brazil (12.1 per cent). And 12 countries were overall riskier than the average, including Mexico (1.9 per cent) and India (1.8 per cent). This could be early evidence of a troubling new trend of scammers targeting non-US victims.
McAfee suggested consumers to search more safely on the Web using McAfee SiteAdvisor Web security software. This free programme helps consumers know what is safe and what may be risky on the Web using red, yellow and green ratings.
Source: Riskiest Searches On The Internet
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