June 16, 2009

McAfee identifies most dangerous web searches
Screensaver searches often lead to malware

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 Internet security company 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.

McAfee's report on The Web's Most Dangerous Search Terms describes how cybercriminals maximize 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.

"Cybercriminals are smart," said Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee Product Development and Avert Labs. "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. Maximum Risk refers to the maximum percentage of risky sites a user might encounter on a single page of search results.

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.

Canada’s Most Dangerous Search Terms

Consumers looking to search for “lyrics” to download or popular celebrity names should take note: searchers clicking on results that contain these search terms have a greater chance of landing at a risky site and infecting their PCs with online threats, such as spyware, spam, phishing, adware, viruses and other malware. Below is the complete list of Canada’s most dangerous search terms:

Search Terms               Maximum Risk

Lyrics                           50.0%
Kijiji                              27.3%
Pamela Anderson          25.0%
Free Movies                  22.2%
Hotmail                         20.0%
Surf The Channel           20.0%
Yahoo Mail                   20.0%
Bloc Quebecois            18.2%
Liberal Party                  18.2%
Jessica Alba                 15.4%

About the Report

McAfee searched more than 2,600 popular keywords across each of five major search engines. McAfee examined the first five pages of results for each search engine, for a total of 25 pages of results for each term. Overall, McAfee examined more than 413,000 unique web addresses.