RT Will Dormann (@wdormann on twitter)
This is probably crazy, but hear me out...
What if, before Google pushes a paid advertisement link at customers, they checked with the Google-owned VirusTotal site to confirm that the site isn't distributing known malware?
You know, to at least pretend that they care...
🤔
For context: If you search for "OBS studio" on Google, there are tons of sponsored links in the top results, which redirect to phising websites distributing malware. The real (legit) website only appears way later.
@SamantazFox weird. If I do a search for OBS studio (logged in or logged out), I just get OBS studio.
I have to assume that somebody figured out a clever work around for Google's malware protection and they've already patched it.
@mtomczak My experience with a logged-in account (coworker that doesn't care about privacy) is that such malicious sponsored links are very common.
Glad they are quite tech-savy, or else they'd have fallen in multiple traps.
@SamantazFox Oh, logged in accounts carry all sorts of information that advertisers can micro-target. If I have a different search and ads history, I won't see the ads they see.
I wouldn't be surprised if some malicious actors are using that micro-targeting toolkit for "stochastic spear-phishing," if you will. Blech.
