AMD has been having enough trouble with overheating graphics cards and buggy drivers. To make matters worse, unsavory individuals are taking advantage of less knowledgeable Radeon users. Popular search engines, including Google and Bing, have been boosting links to malicious websites distributing malware disguised as drivers. Shared by vigilant Redditers on the r/pcmasterrace subreddit, you can see how an ad can mislead mainstream users:
This problem isn’t localized to Google either. Microsoft’s Bing search engine suffers from the same problem. Many third-party URLs are posing as the official AMD website using simple SEO tricks and the power of paid advertising. While not all these sites spread malware, most come with spyware, adware, or hidden miners programmed to siphon your data and/or processing power.
Users should double-check before downloading drivers from the internet. The official AMD website will always have the domain name “https://www.amd.com”, with no other keywords before the “com” domain level. Many outlets recommend third-party anti-virus programs, but I beg to differ. Windows Defender has come a long way and should be more than enough for most users. I have been using it over the last 2 years and have never faced any issues.
