Careful What You Search For

I’m a pretty big fan of the SiteAdvisor application.  It warns me about the risk posed by certain websites regarding malware, spyware, popups and even spammy websites.  They came out with a new report warning about the most risky search keywords.  Unsurprisingly, they are music and tech related.

From the AP here:

Search terms related to music and technology are most likely to return sites with spyware and other malicious code, a new study finds.
 
Some 42 percent of the results using the term “screensavers,” for example, led to sites flagged with a “red” warning or a cautionary “yellow” by McAfee Inc.’s SiteAdvisor service. Other keywords McAfee deemed risky include names of file-sharing software — “BearShare,” “LimeWire” and “Kazaa.”

In many cases, the programs come bundled with adware and toolbars McAfee considers unwanted, according to McAfee’s “The State of Search Engine Safety” report, scheduled for release Monday.

Risks are greater when clicking on keyword ads that make up much of search companies’ revenues: According to McAfee, 7 percent of such links produce risky sites, down from 8.5 percent a year ago.

I ran into this problem when I went searching for DVD drivers for a system I was rebuilding.  I encountered dozens of pages full of search results to malware hosting sites.  I eventually chose one that I thought was not malware related and installed it.  It turned out that malware piggybacked my installation and the system was botted.  Ooops.  Then I tried to find a malware disinfector using a web search.  The results?  Yeah, more malware!