Does anyone else find Google Images one of the most dangerous places to go for picking up malware?

Yes, I’ve had that problem too. I wonder why is that? I am always tempted to click on Google Images, but I’m very wary about it. It seems doing so creates problems with my computer. I don’t know if it’s my imagination. I hope others will elaborate on their experiences.

Can I ask you what kind of harm has been done to your computer?

@anartist What browser do you use? If you use Firefox and get the Web of Trust add-on it will/should warn you when you click on an image that google images has found, if the image is located on a site that might be harmful or have a malware, etc. problem. Google images isn’t the problem, as far as I know, the problem would be with the site where the image is located. But I have a Mac and they are less vulnerable to that kind of stuff.

I’ve had this one do strange things after clicking a pic. My wife who is the computer smart person here will ask, “__what did you do?“__ And I can’t tell her what. I was trying to look at a picture is all.

Thank you @lillycoyote I downloaded web of trust, so we’ll see if I can stop myself from doing wrong on here.

@woodcutter Let me know how it works for you, just curious. And Web of Trust works for any website, not just one’s you find on google images. It sets up kind of a barrier between you and the nasty website and warns you so you can avoid the “click of doom.” :-)

@lillycoyote Well we’ll see. My wife gets impatient with me sometimes when she has to come in here and rescue everything and clean up the rubble.

I’ve never had a problem with google. Just look at the URL of the image first and make sure it doesnt look wierd and your good, and stop looking at PRON

@woodcutter I certainly hope the Firefox Web of Trust add on works for you, protects your computer against malware. Wives can get impatient enough when all they have to do is pick up a man’s dirty socks, underwear and towels. If they have to clean up the rubble too, well, that can make them extra cranky. :-)

Yep. I guess that is where I picked something up last week when I was looking to link something for Fluther. :( I use FF…I’ll have to ask my geek about the Web of Trust thingy.

@XOIIO with google images, one doesn’t get to see the source of the image. The google image image link is hijacked before it gets to the source.
@lillycoyote rhank you fo the web of trust tip

@anartist well still, I’ve never had a problem with anyhting. Maybe its just cause I use a good antivirus, but I’ve always been clean.

It’s happened a to a few of us at work and with it being work it was nothing dodgy either.

The malware comes from the sites some of the images are hosted on, not from google.

I’m starting to see stuff like this a lot. There really isn’t any good reason that the browser needs to do anything on that port to look at a image.

That image is from Little Snitch on a Mac. I’m not sure what the equivalent is on Windows. It pretty much asks me if I want to allow traffic everytime Firefox uses any thing that isn’t using the standard HTTP port of 80. I just say Deny to be safe.

@XOIIO I always have good AN but I am a big isk taker too and I gobble up potentially useful images like a whale sucking up all those little minnow things.

@johnpowell Deny, no thank you, and even tying to close the tab doesn’t always wok—they also often use that same sleazy tick some nasty sales sites use—defang the back button.

@downtide I am not blaming Google but there is a weak spot between clicking on the image pulled up in the google search [which is not a static link to a site] and the trip to its source page.

I’ve often noticed this too.

Off topic—apologies for sticky “r” key and typos due to letters worn off or looking like other letters [what’s left on “r” looks like “t” and “l” like ”;”—sorry

@Keep_on_running notic ed which? Crap when using google images? Any idea if the hijack is on the image site or en route?

@anartist Always on the image site. Probably a good idea not to really click on the images unless you know the site or at least have some good internet security.