Details
- Vector type:
- Google Manipulation
- Risk level:
- ?
- Impact level:
- ?
This is more of a conceptual NSEO thought experiment than a known attack vector.
Imagine if you will that Google does pay attention to how users behave in the SERPs, to which sites they avoid, which they bounce back from and abandon in favor of others. Given scale and time, this data could be manipulated to create a negative usage footprint a target website.
Defense
Were this type of manipulation to come into play, there would be little anyone could do about it, except to rely on Google identifying and filtering out such patterns. The good thing here is that convincing Google there are sustained behaviors from “trustworthy” user accounts is not something that’s easy or cheap for an attacker to achieve.