Google Chases Computer Criminals to Search-Engine Competitors

Google Inc. has almost cut in half the malicious software affecting users of its search engine, driving hackers to competitors including Microsoft Inc.’s Bing, Yahoo! Inc. and Twitter Inc., a report says.

Hackers targeted Google, owner of the most popular search engine, 38 percent of the time as of Dec. 31, according to the report to be released later this month by Barracuda Networks Inc., a web security firm. Mountain View, California-based Google accounted for 69 percent of the attacks in a sample conducted around June, the report says. A Barracuda report in July labeled Google “king of malware.”