Black hat SEO operations become rampant

In the last week, more than 280 search terms have been attacked by more than 6,600 black hat search engine optimization (SEO) operations, according to a study by SonicWall.

The research says up to nine top search terms can be attacked at any one time.

Usually, black hat SEO experts use popular news to promote their websites, which actually force rogue antivirus applications onto your computer.

“A search on [film producer] ‘Elinor Burkett’ within a 24-hour period between March 8 and 9 presented 40 unique malicious URLs appearing in Google search’s top 30 results,” cited SonicWall as an example. “These criminals are now going after these top search terms using their knowledge to insert malware-infected Websites almost immediately after people show interest in a particular news site.”

SonicWall urges users to check the URL before clicking it. The internet company says that legitimate sites often show complete and readable sentences in their description, while malicious sites show jumbled keywords.