Cybercrooks Inject Search Results for 'iPhone MMS' with Scareware Links

Right after MMS became available for the iPhone, cybercriminals poison "iPhone MMS" search results with malicious links.

So you have an iPhone and you are happy that MMS is now available for the ridiculous price that you may already be paying for service. You perform an internet search on "iPhone MMS" to find out if everyone is just as happy as you with MMS on the iPhone and the search result that you click on redirects you to a malicious site that downloads malware onto your system. If this has not happened to you then consider yourself lucky.

Apparently cybercriminals have flooded the internet with bogus sites that promote scareware, or software that claims your computer is infected through fake popups until you purchase a useless application. These sites have populated the search results on the terms "iPhone MMS" and "iPhone SMS" which coincides with the recent release date for the anticipated enabling of the MMS functions of the iPhone.

The cybercrooks have setup this new scareware campaign to infect computers through deceiving tactics imitated on malicious web pages.

Cybercriminals are able to inject search engines with these results through other compromised computers, or bots, which are under the attacker's control. These botnets are able to give the attackers much more control over a simple spam message or slow spreading parasite. Basically, the attackers know the way search engines populate their results and use it to their advantage.

Computer users are warned to be cautious of what they click on. There is no way for the search engines to avoid populating their results with those of malicious links because of the way the attackers use advanced keyword methods. To the search engine the links look legitimate. Most times attackers use popular events or subjects to start a new scareware search engine result campaign. The iPhone MMS feature is just a recent example as this has happened in the past.

Security researchers will say this type of attack will only continue to grow as this is not the first time it has happened on a large scale. Several months ago hackers used the Swine Flu as a popular subject to inject search results with malicious links.

Have you ever clicked on a malicious link that was populated in a recent search engine result?