Japan earthquake unleashes web scams, malware
The 8.9-magnitude earthquake and deadly tsunami in Japan also has triggered a tidal wave of cybercrime, say experts.
Almost immediately after the news broke, internet fraudsters got to work by customising their malicious websites so they would rank near the top of search results, a process known as black hat search engine optimisation. They had information about the quake but actually had been booby-trapped with malware, such as rogue anti-virus programs.
"We immediately monitored for any active attacks as soon as news broke out, and true enough, we saw web pages inserted with key words related to the earthquake," wrote Norman Ingal, threat response engineer at Trend Micro. Chicanery on the web is quite common following disasters, including previous tsunamis and other unique tragedies.
