Spammers hop on swine flu story
Monday, April 27, 2009
Spammers looking to gain notice from popular search terms have hit upon the swine flu outbreak as an opportunity to hook users with references to the public health scare.
Network security firms reported Monday that about 2 percent of all spam emails contains the words "swine" and "flu" while 146 domain names have been registered containing references to the swine flu, according to SCMagazineUS.com.
Email security experts said the spam emails and websites do not appear to host malware, although they appear to be connected to websites offering pharmaceuticals, the online news source reported.
Cybercriminals and spammers have begun using search-engine optimization tactics to push malicious websites higher on search engine rankings.
Security researchers recently detected a black hat search engine optimization attack using searches for terms related to automaker Ford to distribute malware. Researchers discovered 1.2 million results in searches related to Ford Motor Company which were directing users to malicious pages.
So far most of the swine flu spam websites appear to contain no live content or are linking to pharmacy and debt-relief websites, SCMagazineUS.com reported.
Organizations should adjust their email filters to be on the lookout for swine flu terms, experts said.
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