The Edward Show

Massive Parasite SEO Attack on .Gov & .Edu Sites (Duke, Michigan, California)

Sep 13, 2025
A shocking Parasite SEO attack is exploiting .gov and .edu websites, including Duke and Michigan. Attackers hijack high-authority domains to rank for illicit keywords, resulting in staggering traffic spikes—over 20 million visits in just 24 hours! Discover how vulnerable CMS systems are targeted and why these domains make prime candidates. The discussion also includes preventive measures for protecting high-authority sites from these alarming breaches.
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INSIGHT

Trusted Domains Grant Instant Ranking

  • High-authority .gov and .edu domains give uploaded spam instant ranking and trust.
  • Attackers exploit that trust to rank spammy pages for high-volume illicit keywords almost immediately.
ANECDOTE

Duke COVID Subdomain Hit With Huge Traffic Spike

  • A Duke University COVID subdomain spiked to over 21.8 million visitors after compromise.
  • The attack used PDFs and pages on the compromised subdomain to capture massive organic traffic overnight.
ANECDOTE

Michigan.gov PDF Ranked #1 For Illicit Query

  • Michigan.gov had a compromised PDF ranking #1 for a controversial high-volume keyword.
  • The PDF leveraged Michigan.gov's DR 91 to pull in enormous search traffic for commercial-value queries.
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