'Twilight' Fever Brings Cybercriminals Out of the Woodwork

WHAT/WHY:

The third installment of the "Twilight" franchise is breaking records for a midnight opening and legions of fans are searching for any details about the film they can find online. Cyber criminals know this and have already "poisoned" common search results hoping to gain access to people's computers and infect them with malicious software ("Malware").

Some common search results are already returning more than 50 percent malicious results – meaning that you've got more than a 50/50 chance of clicking on a link that can put viruses, keylogging programs (where criminals can monitor everything you type), and other nasty things on your computer that can cause no end of trouble!

Top search terms that are likely to be poisoned include:

• "Twilight New Moon Eclipse Wikipedia" (53 percent malicious)

• "Twilight Eclipse Wiki" (39 percent malicious)

• "How Long Is Eclipse The Movie going to be" (28 percent malicious)

Norton has seen a spike in these poisoned search results over the last 24 hours, and experts expect even more "Twilight"-related poison search results, scams and spam as the movie gains momentum.

EXPERTS:

Response experts are on hand to share tips with users on how they can protect themselves from "Twilight"-related threats online, including:

• Nude pictures of Rob Pattinson sound too good to be true? They are! – Cybercriminals use sensational headlines to get you to click on their poisoned links. Better to delete e-mails and ignore search results from people and sites you don't know – no matter what they're promising.

• Don't let attacks take you by surprise - Use a reputable online security software to let you know when you're about to click on a link that's poisoned.

• Browsing social networking sites while standing in line? - Don't assume links and videos posted by friends on social networking sites are safe – use a site such as Norton Safe Web to make sure sites don't contain any malicious elements before you click on them.

IMAGES:

Screenshots of search results, showing how many – and which – results are infected.

WHEN:

Interviews available upon request

CONTACT:

Gerritt Hoekman

Edelman for Norton

323-202-1895

[email protected]