Almost a tenth of sponsored results may pose risks

Sponsored results from leading search vendors may contain web addresses for dangerous or hostile sites which could compromise the security of corporate data, according to research by security vendor McAfee.

McAfee surveyed Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL and Ask search results, and found all returned risky sites – up to 72 percent for results for popular keywords such as “popular software” and “digital music”.

Overall, 8.5 percent of sponsored links were rated red or yellow, according to the colour-coded safety assessment of the McAfee's SiteAdvisor tool, indicating they were risky. Of non-sponsored search results, only 3.1 percent were rated as risky.

Common techniques of hostile sites include bundling spyware and adware into downloads, and installing keylogging or screen-grabbing technology without the user's knowledge, according to McAfee security analyst Greg Day.

"The scope for [these things] is pretty much limitless," he said. " Businesses [should have policies] to say 'you shouldn't go to a site which could do potential harm to the business', enforcable with technology [like SiteAdvisor]."