Who would have thought that searching for a simple six-word phrase on Google could result in getting hacked?
However, that seems to be the exact case, as per what one cybersecurity company has revealed in an urgent warning on their website.
What Are These Words?
SOPHOS, a cybersecurity company, recently posted a warning on its website. It informs people that typing six words into a Google search or any other search engine might leave them vulnerable to getting hacked.
The words or phrase made up of 6 words “Are Bengal Cats legal in Australia?” has been pointed out to be dangerous as those who made this Google search had personal information stolen when they clicked on links that appeared at the top of the page.
These links were found to be fraudulent and made the users vulnerable to cybercrime.
SOPHOS stated on their site that “GootLoader is known for using search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning for its initial access.
Victims are often enticed into clicking on malicious adware or links disguised as legitimate marketing, or in this case a legitimate Google search directing the user to a compromised website hosting a malicious payload masquerading as the desired file.
If the malware remains undetected on the victim’s machine, it makes way for a second-stage payload known as GootKit, which is a highly evasive info stealer and remote access Trojan (RAT) used to establish a persistent foothold in the victim’s network environment. GootKit can be used to deploy ransomware or other tools, including Cobalt Strike, for follow-on exploitation.”
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The company also said, “Our investigation revealed the threat actor was using SEO poisoning through an easily accessed online forum found via a simple Google search, initiated by the user for ‘Do you need a license to own a Bengal cat in Australia’.”
During their investigation, they also found that “Upon review of the running processes, we were able to determine that a small JavaScript file was dropping a large JavaScript file at the location C:\Users\<Username>\AppData\RoamingMicrosoft\ on the user’s machine. During our testing, the large JavaScript file generated by the malicious site and its name, downloaded to the user’s %temp% directory, were different each time the initial JavaScript was executed.”
Reports also claim that currently, the dangerous links appear only when the word “Australia” is used in the search phrase.
Once the user clicks on those dangerous links, a program known as GootLoader is apparently being used to access a person’s personal information like bank details, and passwords and even lock people out of their own computers.
The cybersecurity company claims that cybercriminals are now using something called “SEO poisoning” to invade common and innocent-looking Google searches. SOPHOS also said that anyone who’s fallen victim to SEO poisoning should change their passwords immediately.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Hindustan Times, The Economic Times, The Times
Find the blogger: @chirali_08
This post is tagged under: Google Searching, Google, Google Search, hack, hacking, cyberattack, cyberattack report, cyberattack news, digital safety, digital safety news, Australia, Cyber Crime, hackers, identity theft, malware
Disclaimer: We do not hold any right, or copyright over any of the images used, these have been taken from Google. In case of credits or removal, the owner may kindly mail us.
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