Thousands of Google Images Infected With Malware

For the past few weeks Veracity's Help Desk team has noticed a dramatic increase in the amount of malware infecting computers. In most of these cases the infection started with an innocent search for pictures from Google Images. Even at Veracity we search Google Images often looking for pictures of products/diagrams that we work with on a daily basis. Through some very sneaky coding, attackers found a way that simply clicking on a link to an image from Google Images initiates a malware install.

After clicking on the link to an image a popup will appear claiming that you are infected. Do not try to click on the "X" at the top of the window that pops up. In some cases clicking on that "X" will initiate the installation of the malware. Instead shutdown and reboot your computer. This will ensure that the malware does not have an opportunity to install on your computer.

You can be easily fooled into thinking the pop-up is a legitimate message from Microsoft and/or your antivirus software. It is actually quite amazing how similar these pop-ups appear to look like the real thing. Please, if you have any questions call us before clicking on anything. Being cautious will save a lot of time if you do become infected.

It is worth mentioning that this version of malware is very bad. It more often than not requires a system rebuild, following the above instructions will prevent a lot of downtime.

As always, if you believe you are infected or if you have questions, contact us.