You can't trust Google results for software downloads right now

Gaming the system shouldn't be so easy for purveyors of malware, but here we are.

- ALAINA YEE

Just a couple months ago, sharp-eyed Redditors noticed that searching for AMD graphics card drivers on Google served up a shady text ad as the first result (fave.co/3S453iB). Our advice then (as now) was to be careful when you're looking for Radeon software, plus maintain good search habits in general. Life’s a whole lot easier when you sidestep malware.

At the time, this incident seemed more of a one-off reason for heightened awareness. Even with the more recent report about Bitwarden suffering from a similar issue (fave. co/3k8YFtR), using Google seemed mostly business as usual. Turns out, though, our threat alert should be set much higher—other major downloads like Adobe Reader, Microsoft Teams, OBS, Slack, and Gimp are being targeted, too.