Hackers exploit Patrick Swayze's death

Unscrupulous hackers are exploiting interest in the news about Patrick Swayze's death, according to security researchers.

Swayze died on Monday at the age of 57 having battled with pancreatic cancer.

Security firm Sophos said that hackers were exploiting a technique known as 'SEO poisoning' to attract surfers to infected websites.



SEO poisoning, sometimes called Blackhat SEO, has been seen several times in recent weeks.

News of Serena Williams' outburst at the US Open was used by cybercriminals pushing rogueware earlier this week.

Swayze's death has caused a surge of interest online - many of the top searches listed by Google Trends relate to the Dirty Dancing and Ghost star.

The soundtrack to Dirty Dancing is rising in popularity in the iTunes Store and is now the seventh most popular soundtrack album.