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Tech Searches Point Users Toward Spyware

by Terrence O'Brien on June 4, 2007 at 03:42 PM


A new study has found that Internet searching is getting safer overall, but that certain search terms -- particularly those related to music and technology -- are more likely than others to steer users in the direction of spyware and other malicious code.

The study was conducted by security software maker, McAfee, which used its SiteAdvisor program to test 2,300 popular search terms across the top five search sites: Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL and Ask.com. SiteAdvisor rates sites based on the presence of spyware, viruses, excessive pop-up ads, junk mail or other nasties.

Using this criteria, SiteAdvisor had a beef with 42 percent of results returned for the search term "screensavers," and found other words such as "LimeWire" and "Kazaa" similarly dubious. Overall, it found four percent of search results returned by the top five sites to be risky. It also found that among keyword ads returned alongside search results, seven percent led users to suspect sites. The good news is, these numbers are down from last year: five percent and 8.5 percent respectively. What's also interesting is that, according to McAfee, searches performed through Google, AOL and Ask.com were safer than those run though Yahoo! and MSN. Of course, AOL and Ask.com use Google to power their search engines.

The lesson to be taken away from all of this? If you're looking for trouble (i.e., searching for file-sharing programs), trouble will find you. If you're an upstanding search citizen, then you're safer than you used to be.

From USA Today

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Tags: breaking+news, google, mcafee, security, siteadvisor, spyware, top

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