Cybercriminals have started exploiting the traffic momentum, and by monitoring the peak traffic for popular search queries using Google’s Trends, are syndicating the keywords in order to acquire the traffic and direct it to malware serving blogs primarily hosted at Windows Lives’ Spaces.

According to a recent advisory issued by Webroot:

“For the first time, hackers are capitalizing on the top news stories from Google Trends Labs, which lists the day’s most frequently searched topics, which can include news of the Wall St. bail out or the presidential campaign,” said Paul Piccard, director of Threat Research, Webroot. “These highly relevant news stories and videos are being posted to the hackers’ fake blogs to increase the site’s Google search rankings.

These fraudulent blogs contain several video links about the news story for which the users were originally searching. Once a user clicks on one of the video links, they are prompted to download a video codec that downloads a rogue antispyware program designed to goad the user into purchasing an illegitimate program that may put their personal information and data at even greater risk.” That may put their personal information and data at even greater risk. “