Osama Bin Laden's Death Targeted by Malware Creators [ALERT]

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New popular search terms like "Osama bin Laden death" are a vulnerable target in search engine rankings. Algorithms use historical data to help determine which sites are relevant to established search terms but have no such record to reference for a breaking news story.

At least two malicious domains, ***-antivirus.cz.cc/fast-scan/ and ***pe-antivirus.cz.cc/fast-scan/, have taken advantage of this loophole to rank high in Google Image search results with alleged photos of Osama bin Laden, according to a blog post by antivirus software company Kaspersky Lab.

Both domains, according to the company, offer a copy of the rogueware "Best Antivirus 2011."

Another malicious site, spotted by Zscaler, displays a photo that it claims to be the killed Osama bin Laden. Farther down the page, a message on a flash video player asks users to update a VLC plugin in order to view the footage. Those who click on the link, however, will download not a media player, but an adware tool known as hotbar.

Other enterprising Internet villains have posted links on social media sites or in emails that appear to offer news about Osama bin Laden's death but redirect to spam or malware.

"Within 24 hours we can expect in excess of 100 million spam emails" related to bin Laden's death, Symantec SMB director Steve Martin told SC Magazine.

Security company Sophos offered these tips for steering clear of spam and malware while following the story:

Don't blindly trust links you see online, whether in emails, on social networking sites, or from searches. If the URL and the subject matter don't tie up in some obvious way, give it a miss.

Use an endpoint security product that offers some sort of web filtering so you get early warning of poisoned content. (Sophos Endpoint Security and Control and the Sophos Web Appliance are two examples.)

If you go to a site expecting to see information on a specific topic but get redirected somewhere unexpected, like to a "click here for a free security scan" page or to a survey site, or to a "download this codec program to view the video" dialog, get out of there at once. Don't click farther. You're being scammed.

Update:The blog of Sohaib Athar, the man who live-tweeted the raid in which Osama Bin Laden Was killed, has been compromised. A new post on the blog titled "Osama bin Laden's death, Twitter fame and malware" actually links to malware.

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