The internet is ablaze with gossip about the state of Sandra Bullock’s marriage to Jesse James, after it was alleged that the Oscar winner’s husband was having an affair with tattoo model Michelle “Bombshell” McGee.
With such a hot trending story, it’s no surprise that hackers have not been slowcoaches in exploiting the interest to their own advantage, taking the opportunity to spread their attacks disguised as content related to the breaking news.
Sure enough, we are seeing web pages appearing high in search results – through the hackers use of search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques – which point to dangerous webpages.
In the following pictured example, the pages appear on the first page of results if you search for content related to Michelle McGee.
It isn’t just pages about the tattoo-ridden McGee that are dangerous though. There are also poisoned webpages related to other search terms associated with Sandra Bullock and Jesse James’s relationship.
Clicking on links like this will endanger the security of your computer – exposing you to scams such as fake anti-virus software and identity theft.
And if you’re in any doubt as to just how hot search terms like “Michelle Bombshell McGee Pictures” are on Google right now – just take a look at this graph:
Hackers are time and time again exploiting interest in hot news stories – underlining the importance of running a security solution that scans every single webpage you visit, and the necessity to keep up-to-date with patches.
If you can’t help yourself and are desperate for a celebrity gossip fix – even when it does involve someone else’s marriage potentially dissolving – then it might be more sensible to go to an established news website rather than clicking through to sites you are unfamiliar with.
* Image source: John Griffiths’ Flickr photostream (Creative Commons)
