Hackers disguise malware as Google News report of baseball death

Baseball player John C Odom became known to millions across America last May after he was traded for ten maple bats.

Tragically, the 26-year-old died from an accidental overdose of drugs and alcohol late last year.

This news has only just become widely known after the mainstream media stumbled across the story.

So, how is this a relevant topic for this blog? Well, heartless hackers have set up a website pretending to be a Google News search result about John Odom’s death, which installs malicious software onto your computer.

In the above graphic showing search results for John Odom’s name, sent to me by Clu-blog reader Pete, you’ll see that squeezed…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.