Google Warning Virus Victims

Google has gone on the offensive, warning users against malware that hijacks searches. Internet surfers hit with the virus find a yellow warning at the top of their Google search results telling them that their computer appears to be infected, the BBC reports. They're then directed to fake anti-virus software programs that burrow into systems if they're downloaded.

"The malware appears to have gotten onto users' computers from one of roughly a hundred variants of fake anti-virus software that has been in circulation for a while," said a company spokesman. Google is placing a warning at the top of search results viewed by people believed to be targets of the virus. The warning links to advice on how to update computer security systems and ward off attacks. Google has already warned hundreds of thousands of users, and suspects the virus has hit some 2 million computers. (More Google stories.)