Websites victim of SEO poison attacks

Security firm Sucuri authored a post describing how an advanced form of malicious action is raising to bring about important issues, for website managers especially.

The practice goes by the  name ‘SEO poisoning’, with SEO (search engine optimisation) a combination of techniques that website managers are able to employ to improve their website ranking in search engines, including Google and Yahoo!

Succuri CTO, Daniel Cid, said that effective SEO techniques include implementing a sitemap and the production of quality content but went on to explain that there are also several underhanded tactics, many of them illegal and including SEO spam.

Cid told SCMagazine.com by email:

“For example, an attacker, ‘A,’ compromises a website, ‘W,’ and inserts links to his own site, ‘S,’ that he wants to improve the ranking. If the attacker manages to compromise many websites, Google will see hundreds of links back to site ‘S’ and rank it better for keywords.”

There are a number of methods a cyber criminal can use to attack a website but it generally involves taking advantage of vulnerabilities found in CMS (content management systems) such as Joomla or WordPress, said Cid. They are also able to utilise automation by scanning the web for vulnerable websites to attack.

Businesses using a CMS clearly hold the highest risk with regards to SEO spam. With that in mind, they would be wise to hire someone with experience of the content management system they are using when planning their IT security recruitment strategy. That will surely go some way to decreasing the odds of being a victim of SEO spam.