Hackers Target Tsunami Search Results

xsee writes "Only hours after the earthquake and resulting tsunami from Chile, hackers began manipulating search results to direct people seeking information on the event to infected webpages. Exercise caution as to where you get information on this tragedy. Chester Wisniewski describes what happened after he saw a suspicious site listed second on a Google search: 'It appears to be a normal website with information and videos about different Asian tsunamis over the past few years. It is difficult to tell whether this particular page was SEO-optimized, or was an innocent victim of a malicious script. SophosLabs got back to me that this page contains some obfuscated malicious JavaScript that we detect as MAL/ObfJS-R. This script was appended after the normal code on the page.'"

Comments

Sick?

[ilovegeorgebush]

Not only do I think this is a little sick on the part of the blackhats, but it does pose some other concerns.

Firstly, are the media going to pick up on this and if they do, will they spin it as an opportunity to bad-mouth the Web and its communities, as well as encourage talk of "tougher rules" and the like.

Since this is a JS vulnerability, I'd certainly like to see more discussion and thought around how seriously we take JS integration on the web and how we approach it as a core target for evil-doers to exploit. Could more be done?

Lastly, how are the web search engines going to react? Could more things like this call for censorship of Google, Yahoo etc; or at least more claims for 'responsibility of the search engines'?

Re:Sick?

[geekmux]

Not only do I think this is a little sick on the part of the blackhats, but it does pose some other concerns.

No real surprise there. Morality is waaaay down the Blackhat list, well below "money" and "power".

Firstly, are the media going to pick up on this and if they do, will they spin it as an opportunity to bad-mouth the Web and its communities, as well as encourage talk of "tougher rules" and the like.

Yes, and it's rather unfortunate that the media has about as much accuracy on the subject as the National Enquirer does reporting fact.

Since this is a JS vulnerability, I'd certainly like to see more discussion and thought around how seriously we take JS integration on the web and how we approach it as a core target for evil-doers to exploit. Could more be done?

Never gonna happen. Java/JRE/JS is the holy grail of environments when it comes to cross-OS integration, and it's not like other options (flash) are devoid of their vulns. Besides, it's always a risk/reward for companies, and a company will generally never take Security over Revenue.

Lastly, how are the web search engines going to react? Could more things like this call for censorship of Google, Yahoo etc; or at least more claims for 'responsibility of the search engines'?

What you're asking from the search engines would pretty much be the death of them. I'd much rather have products like AVG warn me in search engine results, or rely on better browser protection rather than censor my results.