Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:17:43 +0000

This is NOT a “your machine has a virus” website, but could have been.

You have searched for a phrase used in current “search engine poisoning” attacks. Search engine poisoning occurs when someone creates a web page in order to make it appear in search engine results. In search engine results, someone will select the link. This technique is frequently used to create pages on trustworthy web sites. Trustworthy web sites which made implementation errors. A malicious person has been able to add their page to the web site, along with code that learn some things about the visitor and returns innocuous text or redirects the visitor to a malicious web site. The malicious web site tries to convince you to install their software because you have a virus.

That is, there’s someone hoping you’ll pick them when you’re searching for information about … whatever it was you were looking for. They’ve “poisoned” the search results with their page and wait for someone to select them.

Bear this in mind when selecting results from your search. Move on, but be selective. Be very suspicious of results with “.php” in them. A safe approach is to type the main page of the web site and proceed from there. If it is a trustworthy website, you should be able to find what you are looking for.

Further information (that I hope you don’t need) is at Somewhat Widespread Web Hacking.