India, July 9 -- When searching for software on Google, it's important to be cautious about where you click - especially in the age of rampant phishing and hacking. Cybersecurity experts have uncovered a widespread campaign that uses fake websites to trick users into downloading malware. This scam targets popular tools like PuTTY and WinSCP, which are widely used by IT professionals and developers to connect securely to remote servers.

Attackers have created fake landing pages that look almost identical to the official PuTTY and WinSCP websites. These counterfeit sites rank high in Google search results thanks to clever search engine optimisation techniques. When users visit these pages and download the software, it appears to work norma...