[Ads-l] Phrase: Pharma hack; also news about the QI website

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The Quote Investigator website has been under attack by hackers
(actually, almost all websites are under regular attack). If you have
visited the QI website you may have seen strange links to websites
selling tramadol, ambien, propecia, and other pharmaceuticals. These
links were planted by hackers who were attempting to manipulate search
engine rankings. This is called a "pharma hack". See below.

The website has been scrubbed, and security has been upgraded.
Nevertheless, if you encounter anomalous content or strange behavior
on the QI website please let me know.

Phrase: Pharma hack

Article: Cleaning the Wp-Page Pharma Hack in WordPress
Date: September 6, 2016
Author: Tony Perez
https://blog.sucuri.net/2016/09/cleaning-the-wp-page-pharma-hack-in-wordpress.html

[Begin excerpt]
Pharma hacks are common website infections categorized under SEO spam.
With pharma hacks, the attacker exploits vulnerable websites to
distribute pharmaceutical content to search engines and the sites
visitors. Symptoms of a pharma hack include embedded links and anchor
text on pages or modified listings in Search Engine Results Pages
(SERPs). These attacks most often target search engines like Google or
Bing in an attempt to increase traffic to illegal pharmaceutical
businesses.
[End excerpt]

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