The computer security giant McAfee has identified which Internet searches are most dangerous to computer safety and which are the safest.

McAfee’s report, entitled ‘The Web’s Most Dangerous Search Terms’ claimed that dangerous Internet searches include searching for things such as free music or screensavers. These search terms are used by cybercriminals to ensnare web users and lead them to their own websites.

Once a web surfer has visited this website, they are vulnerable to downloads that infect your computer, such as spyware which can help reveal private bank details to hackers and other cybercriminals.

McAfee’s report also identifies that these dangerous search terms are changing with regard to the new global economic environment. With higher numbers of people being made redundant due to the economic slump affecting so many, cybercriminals are now using search results to target people looking to save money or find a job working at home.

Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee Product Development & Avert Labs said: “Cybercriminals are smart. Like sharks smelling blood in the water, hackers will create related Web sites laden with adware and malware whenever a particular topic increases in popularity. Unsuspecting consumers are then tricked into downloading malicious software that leads them to blindly hand over their personal assets to cybercriminals.”

The riskiest set of search words, according to McAfee’s report, include keywords to the variation of ‘screensavers’. The research concluded that nearly six out of the top 10 search results for the keyword ‘screensavers’ contained some form of malware.

The riskiest search of the 2,600 most popular keywords that McAfee researched was ‘lyrics’, with the risk factor rising to one in two.

The research concluded, however, that the word Viagra was one of the least risky of keywords. The keywords with the safest risk profile included search words related to health and the current economic climate.

McAfee’s report also indicated global variations on these risks. Many of these countries had keyword categories that ended up exposing web surfers to the higher risk sites. 12 countries were exposed to an overall higher risk than McAfee’s average, including Mexico and India. McAfee’s report therefore pointed to cybercriminals targeting those outside of the U.S.

McAfee gave caution to home workers and to those looking to save money: if a result contains the word ‘free’ it has a 21.3% chance of infecting a computer with spyware, spam, adware and other malicious cyber threats. The search ‘work from home’ is four times riskier than the average risk given for all popular terms.

To protect against these vulnerabilities, McAfee SiteAdvisor Technology has been designed. This rates every trafficked site on the Internet to conduct automated tests. Web sites are ranked using coloured ratings, so that users are knowledgeable as to what they are clicking on. McAfee have also recently announced the Cybercrime Response Unit to help arm users against the threat.

Guest Article by Neil Camp