[su_heading]A study reveals that more than 100 top US universities have been hacked and are being used for SEO Spam campaigns, aimed at promoting an online gambling portal to the top positions of search engines.[/su_heading]
Several of the websites are still infected to this day, while most of them have malicious backlinks placed on them, pointing to a gambling website.
The links that have been inserted are disguised and although they appear as simple words – without differing in color from the rest of the text – search engines detect them and use them to better rank the betting website that is promoted through them.
The compromised websites were discovered by researchers from Israeli SEO firm eTraffic as they investigated the mysterious emergence of a new online gambling service that managed to climb to the top pages of Google search results for highly valuable keywords such as “slots,” “real money slots,” and other related search terms.
The investigation revealed countless .edu and .gov websites that linked to the website in question .
“Backlinks from .edu and .gov websites are highly coveted and perhaps the most fundamental technique for search engine optimization (SEO),” explains Assaf Dudai of eTraffic. “Some of these backlinks come from the most prestigious universities in America, such as Stanford.”
Below is a list of the top universities that were used as a vehicle for the SEO Spam campaign, the pages where the malicious links were inserted, as well as the keywords (Anchors) that were promoted on each page.
[su_button url=”https://www.secnews.gr/105653/video-%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%84%CF%83%CE%B9%CF%83%CF%84%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%AE-%CE%B4%CE%BF%CE%BB%CE%BF%CF%86%CE%BF%CE%BD%CE%AF%CE%B1/” target=”blank” style=”3d” background=”#6fa9c1″ color=”#ffffff6″ wide=”yes” center=”yes” radius=”20″ icon_color=”#ffffff”]Read more: DIE: Criminal case against 18-year-old for illegal betting[/su_button]
