Google today is rolling out warnings to search users who might have been infected with malware.
The move comes after Google noticed some unusual activity on its network while conducting routine data center maintenance. "After collaborating with security engineers at several companies that were sending this modified traffic, we determined that the computers exhibiting this behavior were infected with a particular strain of malicious software, or 'malware,'" Damian Menscher, a Google security engineer, wrote in a blog post.
As a result, certain users might see a warning atop their search results (below) that says, "Your computer appears to be infected." The alert includes a link with information about how to fix the problem. Google did not disclose how many users will see the warning.
What happens if your computer is affected? Google said the malware "causes infected computers to send traffic to Google through a small number of intermediary servers called 'proxies," Menscher wrote. "We hope that by taking steps to notify users whose traffic is coming through these proxies, we can help them update their antivirus software and remove the infections."
If you don't see the alert but are concerned that your computer might have malware, you can run a system scan using the directions on Google's Help Center.
The move comes several months after Google announced plans to incorporate warnings about malicious downloads into its Chrome browser. Chrome already has a "Safe Browsing" mode, but the April update went after downloads that "use social engineering to entice users to download and run the malicious content," like sites hosting free downloads that actually do things like display spam ads, perform click fraud, or steal passwords, Google said.
Google has also contended with malware in its Android Market. In June, for example, the search giant removed 10 apps that appeared to exploit the popularity of apps like Angry Birds. In early March, Google also remotely deleted a series of applications from users' phones due to malware known as DroidDream and released a security update to rectify the problem. DroidDream developers returned for another round in June, prior to the Angry Birds exploit.
