This weekend, if you visited the websites for the BBC, New York Times or MSN, run a malware scan.

from JoeUser Forums

 

Malvertising (malware tainted advertising) is a plague.

So, those websites were hit with malvertising this past Sunday. The BBC was still infected on Monday as well.

“The advertisements connected with servers hosting the Angler exploit kit. The kit tries to find software vulnerabilities on a computer in order to deliver malware.

A successful exploit could deliver ransomware, a type of malware that encrypts a computer’s files. Victims are asked to pay a ransom, usually in bitcoin, in order to get the decryption key and restore their systems.

Trend Micro wrote about the same attack on Monday. Segura said he delayed publishing a blog post while he contacted major advertising networks, including Google’s DoubleClick, Rubicon, AOL and AppNexus, to get the malicious advertisements removed. He published a post on Tuesday…Malwarebytes detected the attack through users who use its Anti-Exploit software.” – PCWorld

Happy scanning, folks.

Source:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3044874/security/large-advertising-based-cyberattack-hit-bbc-new-york-times-msn.html

26,895 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top

Awesome.

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

And they want to do away with paper money and go to all electronic.  Oh well.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

bbc does ad??? (not counting their internal stuff that is)

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looks like it's bbc.com not the british version? never seen ad on the british version and didn't expect there to be as bbc doesn't do ads over here.... then again. i use ad blockers

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

"Major websites including the BBC, Newsweek, The New York Times and MSN ran malicious online advertisements on Sunday that attacked users’ computers, a campaign that one expert said was the largest seen in two years." - PCWorld

alaknebs...if you doubt pcworld's reporting, the best place to do that would be in the comments section here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/3044874/security/large-advertising-based-cyberattack-hit-bbc-new-york-times-msn.html

 

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

i later saw a similar report in the bbc.co.uk buried under the tech section, hence the edit.

the reason i was surprised about the ads is quite simple. bbc is paid for by uk tv viewers. basically if you own a tv you have to pay a license fee. in return, the bbc does not do ads (on tv/radio at least) unless you include the ads about their own programs. and i think they don't run ads on their main site (the uk one).

i'm guessing they are running ads on the international/american/whatever version of the site (bbc.com) to pay for the running cost so the british taxpayers are not in effect subsidising that site. i wonder what kind of ads they run.

Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top

One hopes that AdBlock avoided this.  I use it and my scans turned up nothing.