New York Times suffers ad-based malware

by admin September 14, 2009 at 6:16 pm

The official New York Times website has been suffering from an infection caused by a rogue banner advert, causing visitors to be warned about non-existent virus infections.

As reported over on CNet, an “unauthorised advertisement” has resulted in New York Times readers receiving pop-ups alerting them to a supposed virus infection. Once received, the alerts stridently encourage users to download illegitimate security software in order to scan for and fix the alleged infection.

At this point, nobody’s PC is infected. Sadly, it’s all to common for people to click the link and download the software – at which point some pretty invasive malware gets installed under the guise of free anti-virus software, scans the system, and detects dozens of non-existent viruses. All the so-called infections can be cured, of course – but only if you part with your credit card details for the full version of the software.

Read more: bit-tech.net