Google has begun issuing a warning on its website to over two million computer owners who may be infected with a virus that hijacks search results.
The malicious software or “malware” intercepts the connection to Google and sends the infected user to servers controlled by the scammers who then modify and redirect traffic.
A yellow warning message appears on the browser’s search results page and says “Your computer appears to be infected”.
The warning then provides a link so the user can work out how to remove the infection or update their antivirus software.
Google said it found “unusual search traffic” when one of its data centres was undergoing a maintenance check.
Writing on the company’s blog, security engineer Damian Menscher said: “The malware appears to have gotten onto users’ computers from one of roughly a hundred variants of fake antivirus, or “fake AV” software that has been in circulation for a while.
“We aren’t aware of a common name for the malware.”
Hundreds of thousands of people are thought to have already been notified.
Source : SKY News
