Risk: Informational
Google has admitted that its AdWords service has been hijacked by hackers looking to spread malware. AdWords is a multi million dollar revenue stream for Google and works by advertisers bidding on keywords that they want their target audience to associate them with.
The affected hijacked keywords, which Google will not disclose but says that it has removed, resulted in users being redirected to malware-loaded malicious sites before reaching their desired destination. It appears that only Windows XP users were affected.