Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Evil lurks in search results

McAfee raises a caution flag about the safety of internet search engine results. Their January through April study examined the end results of people using the five major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask.com and AOL Search). The study showed that clicking on links in search results took users to malicious web sites on average 285 million (yes, million) times a month.

The real kicker is that "sponsored" links are nearly three times more likely to link to malicious sites than are regular search results. Search engine companies are taking steps to protect their users, though. These steps include tools for detecting and removing spyware, pop-up blockers, and anti-phishing filters. McAfee, for example, suggests you download and use their "SiteAdvisor" utility to make surfing safer.

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