IT security vendor Webroot reports that criminal hackers are targeting people searching for information about the artists and the music connected with the awards for malware attack purposes.
This will be the 30th ceremony held in the 33 year history of the awards. As in previous years, the BRIT Trust will donate profits from the ceremony, including the sale of a three-CD compilation, to various charities that benefit young people in the UK.
Unfortunately, says Webroot, its malware research team has found at least two distinct security threats face web surfing Anglo-musicophiles: bogus music download sites and fake alert messages.
The bogus music download sites reportedly tease users with offers of free downloads of the compilation set, but then require users to register and pay a fee – none of which ends up in the hands of the BRIT Trust charity.
The purveyors of irritating fake alert messages, meanwhile – and which invariably lead to rogue antivirus downloads – are also heavily pushing themselves to near the top rankings in some search results.
Reporting on the problem, Andrew Brandt, a security researcher with Webroot, said that the results led directly into fake virus alerts, which appear very near the top of searches for the BRIT Awards.
"There's nearly nothing new about these fake alert messages, which closely resemble those that have been in heavy rotation for the past several months. However, they do appear to be within the first five search results on Google", he said.
The fake scan, he noted,end up with a `laundry list' of bogus results and click anywhere on the screen invokes the page to begin a download of the rogueware's installer.
"This is the point where, if you're running Windows, we recommend you hit the Alt-F4 key combination on your keyboard. If you install it, the rogueware disables various essential Windows functions, including the registry editor and task manager, until such time as you pay to 'register' the 'product.' "
"You don't need this kind of trouble", he said in his blog posting.