In a study of search terms and results leading to malware sites, McAfee found almost six out of ten (59%*) search results for keyword variations of "screensavers" lead to sites containing malware. Half of "lyrics" searches produce the same.McAfee's report, entitled "The Web's Most Dangerous Search Terms," suggests cybercriminals' most desirous targets are youngsters presumed to be less educated about dangers on the Web, less careful about their navigation, and more likely to be searching for freebies.
Sadly, cybercrooks also seem to be targeting those down on their luck; variations of "work from home" searches can be four times riskier than the average risk for all popular terms, says McAfee. Results containing the word "free" carry a 21.3 percent chance of encountering spyware, phishing, adware, viruses or other malware.
But it may not be a matter of target markets. Instead, cybercriminals are probably just casting as wide a net as possible. McAfee made tools of trending sites like Google Zeitgeist and Yahoo Buzz to develop a list of search terms to test. In all 2,600 keywords were tested, but McAfee declined to say which search engines were used for the test.
The recession is surely fueling searches for means of earning extra income and saving money, just as lyrics searches were probably heightened by American Idol performances. Viagra, a popular spam keyword, did not turn out to be as risky as other terms, probably not because the Viagra-using population is less Web savvy, but more likely because there is a smaller demographic searching for information about it.
Other risky terms include "free games," "Rihanna," Webkinz," "Powerball," "iPhone," and "Jonas Brothers."
*That's the calculated maximum risk average. Average category risk is 34.4%
netizens left a footprint.