Some of those Google ads are actually hackers

Ads can be annoying, but that’s why Google doesn’t charge you every time you search for something. In some cases they can be helpful. If you search for a specific product and Google Ads gives you that website as the first result, you’ll be right where you need to be. However, these days, you might want to skip the ads that Google displays. Researchers have found fake ads on the platform that look genuine at first glance.

This is called “malvertising” (a very Horrible Problem Name): Malicious actors inject malware into fake ads to trick users into believing the ad is legitimate. You might think everything about the ad is legit, down to the website URL, but when you click on it, you are facing a scam, not the site you intended to visit.

Malwarebytes Threat Intelligence Fake Google ads first highlighted the issue in a tweet last month They started a Google search for “YouTube”. This is a simple request that provides an easy path to a video service (owned by Google, so in the end).However, instead of displaying the standard YouTube link at the top of search results, Google advertisement for the site.

At first glance, this ad looks legitimate, especially since the URL is correct (https://www.youtube.com).why won’t Can the link take you to YouTube? An alert from “Windows Defender” claims that the website was blocked “due to suspicious activity”, citing a Trojan spyware issue, with no technical support for a solution. Please contact support.

This alert is not Windows Defender and its “tech support” are not legitimate. According to Bleeping Computer, when you contact “Technical Support”, you will be instructed to download TeamViewer to your computer in order to fix the issue remotely. TeamViewer gives another user complete control over your computer, so malicious users can use this software to lock you out of your computer and demand a ransom or steal your information. There is likely to be.

At the moment, searching YouTube on Google does not show this malicious ad, nor does it show any ads at all, so at least this particular situation has been fixed. But that doesn’t mean all other malbatism has been put down. Ads that appear on top of regular search results in any Google search can be malicious, and there aren’t many ways for users to know until they click on them.

How to protect yourself from fake Google ads

So your best bet is to avoid Google ads altogether. It’s really not a hard order —oIn many cases, only the official search results displayed below the advertisement can complete the query. Also, he has one less ad that Google can use to track your interests.

There are subtle signs to watch out for when you should click on an ad. If you look at Malwarebyte’s tweets, you will see the result “YouTube – official website”. A legitimate result for YouTube is name. Additionally, the text below the title looks a little off, as if it was pulled from the YouTube video description. The actual results are not, and provide a quick rundown of YouTube as a platform.

Of course, if the hacker is crafty and crafts a truly compelling ad, the last resort is: If the ad takes you away from the site you are trying to visit, please close the window. Do not follow the “alert” instructions and install no software, only GTFO. Clicking on the ad itself does not harm your computer, but it can install malicious software or give the hacker remote access to your computer through programs like TeamViewer.

[Bleeping Computer]