Hackers and Spammers Already Exploiting Starlet’s Death

Actress Brittany Murphy’s sudden death yesterday at the age of 32 shocked Hollywood and her fans, but hackers and spammers wasted no time in exploiting the tragedy. Already the top results for searches about her death are all malicious, leading to sites that attempt to download fake anti-virus software. Spam messages with links leading to similar sites have also been detected.

The tactic is nothing new. Spammers and hackers jump on holidays, major news stories and celebrity deaths and quickly poison search results for them using black hat SEO techniques. Earlier this year the deaths of actor Patrick Swayze and pop icon Michael Jackson were similarly exploited. Experts expect the upcoming Olympic Games and World Cup to unleash a flood of similar exploitations.