CYBERSPACE — Google is increasingly becoming the search engine of choice not only for surfers but also for hackers. SurfControl of Northern Californian recently announced that it had found evidence that a mock-up of the Google Toolbar was being used to dupe people into downloading malware onto their computers.Once installed, the malicious applications can turn the system into a zombie PC, allowing unauthorized access to its resources and becoming a mailing point for mass spam.

According to SurfControl, email circulating through the country has appeared during the past week and encourages readers to visit a bogus website and download a counterfeit Google Toolbar app. When surfers visit the sit, they download a Trojan, instead.

Some versions of the fake go so far as to provide a genuine Google address for the Internet Explorer browser, then use Google’s redirection service to cover up for the site’s true motives and origin.

The Trojan, W32.Ranky.FW exists to turn PCs into zombie machines and is spread using the tried-and-true method of asking spam trusting users to click on an embedded link, which takes them to the Google appearing trap.

Although of variable functionality, SurfControl says the scam cleverly combines a number of hacker/phisher techniques. Taking the time and making the effort to effectively reproduce a legitimate webpage, as has been done in this case, is unusual, however, especially when combined by the believable looking spoofed web address. The authentic looking email likely has led a number of naïve internet users to compromise their systems.