Google worse for malware than Yahoo! or Bing

Thu Jul 29 2010, 16:51 PM

Users are much more likely to encounter malware on Google than on rival search engines Bing and Yahoo!, according to an analysis of popular searches by Barracuda Labs. Creators of malware often link their software to topics that are trending on Twitter in an attempt to trick users into downloading. Researchers did 5.5m searches for 25,000 different trending topics and found that Google presents links to malware in 69% of cases. Yahoo! scored just 18% in the study while Bing was just 12%.

Barracuda Labs also analysed 25m Twitter accounts to identify indicators of illegitimate account use. The research shows that only 29% are "true Twitter users" who follow and are being followed by 10 users. Nearly a third of Twitter users have never even tweeted.

Paul Judge, chief research officer of Barracuda, says: "Attackers have devoted serious efforts towards getting in front of the billions of eyeballs that are using search engines everyday and the millions of users that are connecting on social networks like Twitter."