This is a case study, where in, the Google search results were analyzed for any inconstancy and possible susceptibility to hacking. The study is confined to a few search terms that we have been working with, and it is suggested to enlarge the scope of the study for wider ramifications.
The following search terms were considered for this purpose:
- simulation exams
- ccna exam
- ccna details
The results for all the three search terms were analyzed and discussed with relevant snap shots.
- simulation exams: The website at no.2 place is totally not related to the term as can be seen by going through the result.
The second result in the search results, with title CCNA 200-125 Practice Exam is totally irrelevant. Don’t get misled by the title (though Google did). The link sunnydaysandlovelyways is leading to a website that is totally in another category not nothing to do with exams or simulations. A screenshot of this site as you click on the link is given below:
It was also observed, at times (randomly) the click is getting forwarded to the website topdum . com, dump website as shown in the screenshot below:
It appears to be an illegal dump site. The redirect is not consistent, it forwards to topdump . com at times, but not always.
Now, lets move to another search term that shows up in Google search results.
2. CCNA exam:
This is a popular search term for CCNA exam, CCNA stands for Cisco Certified Network Associate, one of the most popular networking cert offered by Cisco.
Heree again, the website ranks third for this keyword. As may be seen, the website has nothing to do with exams, let alone CCNA exam. A pure misplacement by Google search.
3. CCNA detail:
Now, we move on to the third search term, ccna detail. A screenshot of the same is shown below:
As can be seen, the website sunnydaysandlovelyways has ranked 5th in the Google results. however, as mentioned before, it has nothing to do with CCNA or exam. The website some times (but not always) forwarding to topdump . com.
There are a few possibilities for the above results:
- The website sunnydaysandlovelyways has been changed. or
- The website sunnydaysandlovelyways has been hacked
The first possibility may be ruled out by looking at the history. The second possibility means that the site has been hacked and ranking high in the google (or black hat seo). However, it is surprising that google ranking some random site so high in search results. The hacker appears to have beaten google search algo at least for a few weeks 9particularly, the Christmas weeks). This is likely to break some businesses, because the slot actually belongs to a credible web site, but taken over by an irrelevant and probably spammy or hacked site.
This is really some thing that one can’t expect, as even bing and yahoo are not showing this particular site for the given search terms in the first 100 pages!