Malware scammers lurk behind free music links

McAfee says Twitter users are particularly vulnerable

Users searching from free music are laying themselves open to malware attacks, according to McAfee.

The company said in a recent report on threats in digital media that while the names of popular music groups may not necessarily pose a heightened risk, searches with the words "free" and "downloads" raised the risk of a malware attack sharply.

Dave Marcus, head of research and communications for McAfee Labs, told V3.co.uk that the trend was spotted in mediums ranging from search engines and social networking sites to torrent download services.

"It's not the searching of the music in and of itself, it's that use of the word 'free' that seems to be what the bad guys are using."

While the lure of free content has long been used to spread malware infections, one emerging area is becoming a favourite hangout for attackers.

The company noted that social networking services such as Twitter have seen sharp increases in malware activity. Marcus credits the trend to a combination of URL shortening to hide malware links along with the wealth of information and the ease of creating new accounts.

"People are just going buck wild sharing information," he said of Twitter.

"It's easy to build fake profiles and it's easy to abuse shortened URLs."

Of particular use to scammers is the service's sophisticated tracking tools. A malware operator can easily see the most popular Twitter subjects and then use those keywords to create messages and links specifically designed to appeal to popular subjects.

The result, said Marcus, is malware scams that can prove even more effective than those preying on the Google Trends service.

To help reduce the risk of the attack, the company is recommending that users stick to known and trusted music download services as well as keep browsers and security software up to date.