Have you ever gone to Google to search for Microsoft Office to purchase and returned results that offer the entire Microsoft Office Suite for a one-time purchase of $30? Who could pass up that deal?Well, you should pass on that deal but some will not because it’s human nature to want to save money and to trust Google.That $30 Microsoft Office purchase is cracked software and likely contains malicious software. The $120 you saved could cost you in identity theft, credential theft, credit card theft, network takeover, data theft, ransom demands, and/or loss of your business.So why do people still purchase it? Is it a lack of education? Or do they just not care?In this episode, we discuss how attackers are using a cracked version of CCleaner Pro to install credential-stealing software on victim computers. People are choosing to “steal” the software rather than pay the $30 (currently $20) for CCleaner Pro. The $30 savings is costing them a lot more but why do people choose to do this?Here’s the article on Bleeping ComputerPoisoned CCleaner search results spread information-stealing malware Transcription People are the weakest link in any cybersecurity plan. We’re distracted, exhausted, and often unmotivated. It’s time to change the approach used to protect our businesses, technology, identity and data. The human element has to be front and center in the war against data breaches and ransomware attacks. It’s time to educate.Welcome to the human element podcast, visit our website at thehumanelement.net for more content to help you strengthen your awareness of the people problem in cybersecurity. I am Scott Gombar. Owner and Washtech a client-focused security-minded proactive IT service provider. Hey, everyone, it’s been a little bit of a while I apologize the IT world is insane. A little busy lately. This is episode eight. I may change the title later. But I’m going to call this the Google search problem. For now. We’ll call that a working title. And I’m using an article from bleeping computer. It’s one of my favorite sites for news, bleeping computer.com. And this one is called poisoned CCleaner search results spread information-stealing malware. Now the issue isn’t really CCleaner. And you’ll understand why once I’m done. I know in the past CCleaner has had malicious or had a vulnerability. I think it’s been a few years now. That vulnerability no longer exists unless you’re you know, you haven’t updated CCleaner in years. Hopefully, that’s not the case. Because that would be a different set of circumstances, I’m sure. Well, what is going on here is that attackers, malicious actors are using Google Search to get people to download CCleaner. Now you’re thinking alright, what does it have to do with the human element has a lot to do with the human element because Google accounts for I don’t know what the numbers are in 2022. But it’s always been very high. Around 90% of all internet search traffic now hasn’t changed much. Or maybe it’s gone down to 80%. I don’t really know. You know, the competition for Google, as far as search goes, hasn’t been really much of a competition, though DuckDuckGo has gained a little bit of ground, I think that’s a different topic. And DuckDuckGo now has its own set of issues, because they were actually, you know, DuckDuckGo advertises that they don’t track anything. But that’s not true. They were tracking for Google or for Microsoft, sorry.