In an effort to proliferate malware and computer viruses, cybercriminals are taking advantage of election season to infect the systems of unsuspecting computer users, reports the Tech Herald.
Favorite keywords among hackers include "election results 2010," "midterm election results," and "election polls." When internet users type these phrases into search engines, the results will be laced with malicious websites that will infect users' computers as soon as they open them. While infections occur most often through Google, Bing and Yahoo users are also open to attacks.
"Some malicious links using those keywords attack instantly, while others have links to malicious domains embedded in comments or posted articles. Either way, the criminals are using many of the same scripts we've seen in the past to pull off an attack," reports the source.
Google accounts for the majority of searches, which is why it is such a popular target for cybercriminal attacks. According to a recent report from comScore, 60 percent of total queries are conducted through Google – more than 10 billion overall.
