May 02, 2011
Internet Comes Alive with Osama bin Laden Searches Following Obama's Announcement: Malware Threats Increase
The Internet is buzzing with searches, comments and theories surrounding last night’s announcement by President Obama that al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden has been put to death in a U.S. operation in Pakistan.
According to this Computer World report, a “live blog” of the military operation was reported inadvertently by an IT consultant in Abottabad, the town where bin Laden was reportedly living. The exposure was found on Twitter, with the consultant missing the importance of his actions until much later.
The consultant, Sohaib Athar, using the id @ReallyVirtual on Twitter, shared: “Helicopter hovering above Abottabad at 1AM (is a rare event)”. Shortly after this post, he followed with, “A huge window shaking bang here in Abottabad Cantt. I hope it’s not the start of something nasty: -S.”
Athar now has more than 14,000 followers on the micro-blogging site – a following he may not have wanted given that he moved to Abottabad from Lahore for some “peace and quiet.”
Security experts have warned that the events provide an opportunity for malicious websites to infect computers by tricking users into visiting their sites for more information. Cybercrooks have been known for their ability to trick search-ranking algorithms of popular search engines by feeding them fake pages to make their sites seem legitimate.
Such activities increase the chances that Internet users searching for actual news will land on a site that is dispensing malware. Paul Ducklin, head of technology at IT security firm Sophos, posted warnings regarding such activities on the company’s website.
Adding his own bent on the subject, Athar joked in another Twitter message that it is a good thing that his blog server is already infected with malware.
One expert at IT security company Kaspersky Lab (News - Alert), Fabio Assolini, is already sharing examples of malware-laced pages that have been cropping up in response to a Google image search for “osama bin laden body.” Users clicking on some of the images in results are redirected to one of two malicious domains that offer a copy of the rogueware known as “Best Antivirus 2011.”
For its part, Twitter has reported that its site carried more than 4,000 messages per second at the beginning and end of Obama’s speech. The top topics being discussed on the micro-blogging site included the death of bin Laden, Abottabad and Navy Seal.
The hottest search on May 1 for Google (News 
- Alert) was “osama bin laden dead.” Other search items related to the death of bin Laden followed close behind in rankings.
The Facebook page “Osama Bin Laden is DEAD” gained a “like” from 258,400 people, many of whom commented on the death of the terrorist. This page, however, appears to have been set up before the death of bin Laden was announced, and supports to the theory that bin Laden was already dead a long time ago. That is one theory that may gain speed as the world continues to react to Obama’s announcement.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Jennifer Russell
» More
TMCnet Feature Articles
