Dodgy ads removed from Google

Leading internet firm Google has said that it has removed a number of advertisements from its site that would attempt to install malicious software onto a users PC once they were accessed.

ZDNet reports that the links were displayed as ‘sponsored’ after visitors entered specific queries into Google’s search engine. Whilst clicking the links would eventually lead the user to a legitimate site, it would do so by way of another site, smarttrack.org, that attempted a ‘drive-by installation’ of password-stealing software.

The malicious links were attached to search terms relating to cars, according to security firm Exploit Prevention Labs.

"We detected about 20 different search strings that resulted in links to smarttrack.org," said Exploit Prevention Labs’ Roger Thompson. "There were multiple ads linking to a single site, a high level of planning, and cunning by the bad guys."