Justin Bieber used as malware lure

Omnipresent cyberstar Justin Bieber is the fishing bait of choice for malware distributors, according to Panda Labs.

The security firm said that blackhat search engine optimisation attacks were being used to distribute malware, and added that it had found as many as 200 different web addresses that exploit the teen singer's name.

Panda found a number of references to Bieber on the links it studied, and these ranged from 'justin bieber takes estrogen pills', to 'justin bieber smoking weed', 'justin bieber pregnant', and 'justin bieber removes left testicle'.

Although this technique is not new - the last episode of meandering confusathon Lost prompted a similar blooming of sites, for example - it is still annoying. Panda said that the fake web sites appeared high in search rankings, and once clicked prompted the user to download a file which turns out to be fake anti virus software.

"These types of activities have become increasingly common and any popular topic or issue is used by cyber-crooks to spread their creations," said Luis Corrons, technical director of Panda Labs.

"By positioning web sites used to distribute malware among the first results in search engines, they can be sure that numerous internet users will inadvertently download the fake antivirus."