Twilight fans are being stalked by covens of hackers who are injecting SEO poisoning attacks into searches for news and information relating to the Stephanie Meyer books and movies franchise.
Whether you are Team Edward or Team Jacob, hackers are trying to suck all the fun out of the upcoming premiere of the latest instalment, Twilight: Breaking Dawn (Part 1), by planting malicious software in common searches, as well as laying traps for fans.
Twilight’s (mostly) teenage fanbase is being warned by Symantec’s Norton division that they may become the victims of SEO poisoning attacks, where hackers have planted malicious software in links to particular searches.
The top searches returning malicious results include “Nude pictures of Taylor Lautner”, “Robert and Kristin kissing” and “Twilight true love.”
Savvy cyber criminals stalk Twihards
Norton by Symantec has warned ‘Twihards’ that savvy cyber criminals know curiosity may overcome caution when it comes to the supernatural series.
“Norton has already found that many common searches related to the movie are returning malicious results. When clicked, these ‘poisoned’ links can automatically put viruses, keylogging programs (where criminals can monitor everything you type), and other nasty infected software on your smartphone, computer or tablet that can cause endless days of trouble. Not to mention leaving your bank account as drained as a vampire’s victim.
“Common searches that are turning up poisoned results tend to be for photos, trailers, clips, casting information and plot details on the series,” Norton by Symantec said.
“Norton has seen a spike in these poisoned search results with the impending release of the movie, and expects even more Twilight-related poison search results, scams and spam as the curiosity continues to peak.”
