Black hat SEO attacks lead Google users to malicious and pornographic content.
There is no electronic system that is not vulnerable to vulnerabilities and attacks. Computers are hackable and networks are susceptible to remote breaches. The same is true for search providers. Bugs and security gaps can undermine the integrity and defense of these services. Even Google , which uses cutting-edge technologies, cannot stop all black hat SEO techniques.
However, to bypass the tech company's sophisticated algorithms and infect search results with "malicious content," malicious hackers must use sophisticated techniques.
Hacked government and university sites distribute malware
Creating booby-trapped pages and trying to boost their online presence through malicious link building programs is one of the most common black hat SEO strategies. However, it is a tedious and expensive activity. For this reason, some criminals use shortcuts and maliciously manipulate trusted sites with good reputations to publish malicious content or lead to malicious sites.
A campaign like this was spotted by security researchers in early August. Hackers compromised sites belonging to U.S., educational institutions, and international non-profit organizations. The list of victims includes the National Institutes of Health, UNESCO, andArizona State University.
The hacks were part of a larger scheme for further exploitation. The scammers compromised sites and published articles claiming to provide advice on hacking social media accounts. For example, UNESCO.org hosted content showing how to hack an Instagram account.
Because all of these sites are legitimate and rank high on Google, the fraudulently published material quickly rose to the top of search resultsfor keywords. The articles were filled with links to hacking tools. Users were instructed to download a file that supposedly unlocked a password-cracking feature.
Instead of doing what it said, however, the link took users to pages hosting online scams that attempted to trick them into handing over their personal information. Some scripts could also install malicious code on users' devices . One of the reported payloads is the Emotet malware loader .
Criminals have been able to compromise popular sites through known bugs in CMS platforms. One of them is a vulnerability in the Webform module used in many Drupal installations.
US government sites redirect to NSFW content
In late July 2020, experts detected a wave of black hat SEO attacks that linked legitimate Google search results to pornographic sites.
The logic behind this abuse revolves around what is called Open Redirects or Unvalidated Redirects and Forwards. In short, it allows a criminal to create a URL that looks like a legitimate domain name. However, when someone clicks on it, they are taken to an unwanted page.
A sample structure of such a link is as follows: hxxps://www.legitimatesite.gov/login.html? Url=https://malicioussite.com. The only part you will see in Google is the *.gov domain which does not raise suspicions.
At this time, it's unclear exactly how the hackers managed to abuse Google's crawlers. The only good news is that the landing pages host harmless (but embarrassing) NSFW content (not dangerous malware).
Spamming about Covid-19
According to findings from security Imperva, many scammers are taking advantage of COVID-19.
To boost their sites’ rankings, scammers use bots or automated scripts that flood various sites, including popular medical discussion forums, with comments containing links to fake pharmacies. Black hat SEO attackers benefit from this tactic in two ways. First, some visitors click on the embedded links and fall into the scammers’ trap. Second, since these pages contain a plethora of keywords relevant to COVID-19, Google ranks them high in its SERPs.
Google dominates the global web search ecosystem for the unparalleled accuracy of search results, thanks to its intelligent algorithms. However, even with cutting-edge technologies, it cannot address all of today's black hat SEO challenges.
