Hackers have set up malicious websites designed to infect the Windows boxes of surfers who mistype the name of popular search engine Google.com. If a user opens one of the malicious websites, such as googkle.com¹, his PC box may be hijacked with malware including Trojan downloaders, backdoors and spyware.

Finnish anti-virus firm F-Secure reports that the site launches multiple pop-up Windows that lead to other sites harbouring malicious scripts. These scripts exploit a variety of vulnerabilities to automatically download code onto vulnerable boxes. Users are advised to keep their browser patches up to date - and to practice touch typing - in order to avoid infection. ®

¹ Common sense should tell you not to visit googkle.com, particularly if you are running Windows on your PC.

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