Disasters are a boon to malware...

Whenever there is a big disaster people rush to the Internet to find the latest news. But that can lead them into trouble because malware distributors will quickly put up web pages related to that disaster, but containing malicious code.

The recent earthquake in Chile is a good example of how malware distributors can add victims. Chester Wisniewski writes: Tsunami blackhat SEO begins

...any breaking news topic tends be exploited by hackers who use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to lure people to visit their malicious pages.

His search for "live Tsunami coverage" uncovered a link to a website infected with code that directs a user's browser to a site with malicious code on it. It was number 2 on his search results.

It's an example of how search engine optimization can be used for "black hat" purposes. And how malware distributors get a new batch of victims every time a disaster claims its victims.