Security - Channel Insider
Empowering the next generation Channel

SEO Poisoning Attacks: 10 Ways to Protect Against Them

By Ericka Chickowski on 2010-08-13



With the prevalence of SEO poisoning attacks growing, the search results of today's most popular search terms are littered with malicious links that could lead to plenty of trouble, lost productivity and worse. The links may look innocent, but they can expose your unsuspecting users to attack. In order to protect users, IT managers and IT solution providers must ensure that users are aware of the dangers that can be posed by something so pedestrian as a Google search. You must also make sure that users are equipped with and making use of the proper tools to reduce those risks and are practicing safe browsing techniques while on the web. A properly trained user can mean the difference between mitigating the damage from an attack and not being attacked at all. Here’s a look at the best practices and tools for making sure that Google search doesn’t ultimately lead to a malware attack and all the ensuing headaches. Getting your users lined up behind these tools and practices will reduce the risk of an SEO poisoning attack to the user and to the company.
  • of
1. Enable secure browsing functionality within the browserWhether users are fans of IE or Firefox, they need to enable secure browsing features in order to block malicious content that they may stumble upon via searching.

2. Utilize free safe search and safe browsing utilitiesThere are number of free utilities out there today from security vendors that can augment what the browser has to offer, providing risk scoring to links directly within search results before one even clicks the link. Some options include Symantec's Norton SafeWeb Lite, McAfee's SiteAdvisor and Finjan's SecureBrowsing.

3. Make sure AV is installed and updatedYes, this is a no-brainer, but it bears repeating. Hackers will take advantage of an unprotected machine.

4. Ensure machines are patchedSimilarly, hackers will use your client's vulnerabilities against them when their users start using unpatched machines to visit poisoned pages.

5. Initiate searches for news directly in news sitesConsider encouraging users to look for topical news directly within their favorite news outlet sites to bypass search results that may be likely to be poisoned.

6. Search for video directly in YouTubeOne popular way hackers are taking advantage of user curiosity is by making poisoned pages that look like they are home to video of Mel Gibson's inappropriate tantrums. When the user clicks the link he or she is asked to download Flash, but is directed to malware instead. Searching directly within YouTube can mitigate this.

7. Remember that most sites stream without the need for extra softwareRemind users that most sites have their video players built in. Some user awareness outreach could keep them from being duped by a seemingly legitimate video site asking to download Flash.

8. Don't auto-click yes when pop ups come up from strange sites For that matter, encourage users to be skeptical about clicking yes to any pop-up that materialize from strange sites found through search engines, even if they were high-ranking and look legit.

9. Utilize encrypted searchSome researchers believe that SEO poisoning techniques to cloak malicious content from security vendors and search engine crawlers can be used against the hackers. Poisoned sites refer to non-malicious content when traffic doesn't come from a search engine. Use Google's beta encrypted search to trick poisoned sites into not knowing where your traffic comes from (find it at httpS://www.google.com)

10. Remind users that you've got their AV needs coveredA large majority of hackers use SEO poisoning to trick users into downloading fake AV scareware. Remind your user base that you already have AV installed and explain what a fake antivirus scan page looks like to avoid future problems.

  • More slideshows

  
CHANNEL RESOURCE CENTER
 
 
 

Intel Technology Provider Program
Intel Technology Provider Program (ITP) helps resellers better understand Intel products which power the technology they sell, and enables value-add services such as remote manageability or anti-theft tracking.
Learn More
 
WindowsForDevices.com
WindowsForDevices.com is the comprehensive news site covering Windows embedded technologies. Visitors get news, technical white papers, opinion columns and extensive directories covering the products and companies in the marketplace.
Click Here
 
Check out our top five picks for technologies that will change the game in enterprise computing.
Learn MoreClick Here