McAfee software has just released a report outlining the Internet’s most dangerous search terms or “keywords“. According to the report, the following keywords that are commonly searched in the United States, tend to be the riskiest:
Top 10 search terms
- word unscrambler
- lyrics
- myspace
- free music downloads
- phelps, weber-gale, jones and lezak win 4×100m relay
- free music
- game cheats
- printable fill in puzzles
- free ringtones
- solitaire
As you can see, scammers use popular culture phrases or news to lure in unsuspecting web surfers. By the time this report was ready and went to press, I can guarantee that the scammers are already on to the next news cycle or cultural meme.
An interesting find in the report was how “Work from home” was an especially risky search term catagory. According to the report, the top 5 riskiest keyword variations were:
- free work from home
- work from home for free
- work from home free
- work from home ideas
- free work from home jobs
Experienced computer experts have known for some time that free screensavers have always been problematic, especially those who feature popular television or film stars. These free screensavers often include other software that can install malicious programs (malware). This particular issue had become so serious that even Microsoft filed suit against a company offering celebrity screensavers, alleging that the program was distributing spyware:
Many of these programs are presented as screen savers showing pictures of well-known celebrities such as Jessica Simpson. However, defendants’ programs included much more than pretty pictures. Once installed, the software would ‘call home’ and surrepticiously download numerous other programs that bombard users with unwanted pop-up advertisements, track users’ Internet activity, redirect their Internet browsers to unwanted pages, add icons to the Microsoft Windows desktop, and change the users’ Windows Registry settings. Microsoft alleges that these programs were downloaded and installed without appropiate notice to or consent from users. Notably, defendants’ software installs even if users try to stop installation by choosing the appropiate options.
Source: McAfee
