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Hackers exploit election news to cause online threats

While the rest of the world was celebrating the historical election of Barack Obama as the first black US president, cyber crooks were busy launching a malware campaign, internet security experts say.

The election result drew the world's attention and internet users eager to catch the latest online may have inadvertently exposed themselves to an online threat arising from the very top of the Google results page.

According to security vendor Sophos, a sponsored link reading 'Download Now' that appeared anytime the search term Obama was typed into Google could cause online security issues for users.

"The website is infected with a malicious i-frame," warned the company's senior technology consultant Graham Cluley.

"This code then downloads further malware onto your PC, including something called Mal/Pdfex-B. Ultimately this code is designed to compromise your computer and allow hackers to have remote control over your PC."

Hackers have tried to exploit Obama's popularity before - in September an email claiming to contain a sex video of the president-elect was reported to have been sent out by crooks.

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