Worm Redirects Google Searches For Profit
A new worm modifies the infected PC so attempts to search using Google are directed to a spoofed site that looks like the real thing, but with different sponsored links to drive traffic to sites the hacker's designated, a security firm said Friday.
Panda Software's analysis of the P2Load.a worm showed that after compromising a PC, it modifies the Windows HOSTS file so all attempts to reach google.com -- and even mistyped addresses, such as "googel.com" -- are redirected to a site actually served from Germany.
"The page is an exact copy of Google and supports the 17 languages of Google," said Panda in a statement.
Searches run on the spoofed version of Google return results similar to the real Google, but in some cases, the sponsored links -- top-of-the-page and right-side links to e-commerce sites that have paid for the placement -- are different.
