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Online Search Words to Watch Out For

by Leila Brillson on May 28, 2009 at 02:51 PM



We've said it before, but we can't drive it home enough. If it's free, it's going to hurt you. And McAfee agrees. The Internet security bigwig today released its 2009 report on search terms most commonly used by cybercriminals to infect unsuspecting computers. The search term to most carefully avoid? Apparently, "screensavers" has a 59.1-percent chance of sending you to a malicious site. "Free games" and "work from home" are second and third most likely to mess you up, with 24.7-percent and 15.6-percent chances, respectively.

Hackers tune in to trends, like free additional income or the celebrity du jour, and use well-searched keywords to trick users into downloading files or applications that carry viruses or phishing programs. McAfee searched over 2,600 popular terms on several different engines, then hit the top five pages for each term (over 413,000 unique Web sites in total) in order to rank the major dangers. The least threatening terms are apparently related to personal health and financial crisis inquiries.

Besides sticking to our rule of avoiding untrusted sites that promise free goodies, you'd also do well to steer clear of random links to "Webkinz", "Jonas Brothers" and "Viagra." Though, if those are your most popular search terms, you have more than Internet scams to worry about. [From: McAfee, via ZDNet]

Search Words to Watch Out For

    In a recent study, security company McAfee entered over 2,600 popular keywords into popular search engines and compiled the search terms that offer the highest risk of malware and infected Web sites. Although hackers and spammers often target popular news and current trends, the riskiest search results were with keywords that were about lyrics or included the word "free." Read on for 10 more risky keywords.

    powerball

    Getty Images

    Rihanna

    Getty Images

    iPhone

    Jonas Brothers

    Getty Images

    Taxes

    Viagra

    Getty Images

    Barack Obama

    Getty Images

    Screensavers

    Work from home

Tags: mcafee, phishing, search engines, SearchEngines, security, virus

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