Malicious Attempt to Violate Users Through Search Engine Optimisation Strategies

From: http://www.seoconsult.co.uk/SEO-News/seo/malicious-attempt-to-violate-users-through-search-engine-optimisation-strategies.html

Even though it is common knowledge in the search engine optimisation marketplace that Google’s algorithms are never exactly known; we can only use our own knowledge to bring one’s website to the top for their main key terms. We use this knowledge in our best interests for our clients to get their keywords ranked to the top page.

Unfortunately, this knowledge can also be used for malicious attacks. According to research carried out by the internet protection firm Zscaler, computer hackers are abusing search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to promote spiteful links on Google.

Zscaler looked into the top search phrases from Google Trends, and found there were up to 86 malicious links showing in the top 100 search results for some terms. In rival search engines, the malicious links were generally limited to 10 or fewer; such as Bing and Yahoo.

Zscaler attributes this to the pace at which Google adds new links to its database, which is faster than other search engines. Zscaler also suggests that attackers adapt their pages to target Google, which results in additional pages being posted. Zscaler urges Google to “step up to the new security threats.”
This could have detrimental effects to the industry of search engine optimisation specialists as they will now be doing everything in their best interest to avoid these malicious attacks, without jeopardising their client’s top page rankings: It begs the question should Google be constantly changing their algorithms in order to stay one step ahead of the spammers and viral linkers out there?