Google to Alert Users of Malware Infections

by NowPublic Staff | July 19, 2011 at 09:48 pm

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Google Notices Strange Search Patterns, Uncovers Botnet

Google discovered a series of strange search patterns, and believes that they are the result of a widespread malware infection.

Affected computers have become part of a botnet. Google will reach out to the affected users with a message in the Google search results.

This particular malware causes infected computers to send traffic to Google through a small number of intermediary servers called “proxies.” We hope that by taking steps to notify users whose traffic is coming through these proxies, we can help them update their antivirus software and remove the infections.

Note that the easiest way to spread malware is with a fake "your machine is infected" message. The Google malware message will only appear as part of a search result, i.e. on the Google page itself, and not as a popup window or any other type of alert.

It will look exactly like the image attached to this story, and will only appear on an actual Google search results page.

If you see the alert below, make sure the URL in your browser window starts with "http://www.google.com/search?q=" or "https://www.google.com/search?q=".

The alert will not prompt you to download anything. The link will to be to this security page. Of course, it's only a matter of time before the bad guys simply copy Google's alert theming. Get used to checking that URL, and avoid random "Your computer is infected! Download this mysterious software!" popups.