When Searching For Bin Laden News, Beware of Malicious Sites!

Just hours after the death of Osama Bin Laden, cybercriminals rolled out a host of scams designed to target Internet users searching for news about the late al Qaida leader.

These include a Facebook page featuring ads for Bin Laden-related freebies, which actually point users to pages that can hijack personal information. According to security consultants, the bad guys were quite fast and started to poison searches results in Google Images. As an example, a Google search with the words "osama bin laden body" typed in the search box resulted in an image that, when clicked, would redirect the user to a malicious domain that could bring your computer to its knees.

... Security experts recommend not clicking on unfamiliar links to purported Bin Laden-related sites that you receive via email and social networking sites.

US-CERT (United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team) encourages users to take the following measures to protect themselves:

• Do not follow unsolicited web links or attachments in email messages.
• Maintain up-to-date antivirus software.
• Review the Recognizing Fake Antivirus document for additional information regarding fake antivirus.
• Refer to the Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks document for additional information on social engineering attacks.
• Refer to the Recognizing and Avoiding Email Scams (pdf) document for additional information on social engineering attacks.