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Trojan Horse targets Google Adsense
dorkygeek writes "The Register reports that nogoodniks have developed a Trojan horse program that produces fake Google ads posing as the real thing. The as-yet unnamed Trojan replaces legitimate ads served via Google AdSense with promos for penis pills, porn sites and the like. Techshout says the Google AdSense team confirms 'that these are fake Google ads, formatted to look like legitimate ads. We agree that this phenomenon is likely the result of malicious software installed on your computer.'"
you visit a lot of porn sites. How can you tell if those pennis pills and porn sites are the real ads or just a virus?
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
If you modify the users HOSTS file to point pagead2.googlesyndication.com to a different machine you can serve your own Google ads. Pretty clever, I'm surprised this hasn't happen before. I don't know how Google could stop this.
What, me worry?
Since a lot of website owners invest a significant amount of money and time into their sites, is it not reasonable for them to try and make some money back? If you expect to view their content for free, and block adverts in the process, you may find the content eventually dries up. Anyway, compared to some of the ridiculous flash adverts out there, google ads are a model of discretion.
Details seem to be somewhat limited, but you are right. This seems to be malware that modifies the content IE presents. This is similiar to malware that goes through the pages you visit and looks for keywords such as "games" and automatically links them to whatever gambling site. These are difficult/impossible for website presenters to stop because the problem is with the infected machine, not the originating website.
It's somewhat refreshing that google seems to just fix problems instead of accepting any sort of blame. It's also sad to see that many google-haters take this as an acceptance of blame.
I'm a programmer, and I have to say, I probably would have just said "tough". I used to try and help the users of my sites with malware, but it just became a pointless battle. They didn't care and seem to put forth any effort. At one point I even forced them to do get scanned (forced is harsh. Automatically redirected to a anti-spyware online scan is better. They could close out the window at any time). I ended up supporting end users asking how to get the spyware off their computer and ended up taking blame for their spyware.
And sadly, I feel like a slashbot saying the same statements as 5 years ago, however... If users would get pissed and proactive at Microsoft instead of everyone but them, maybe something would happen. But so many people are complacent and keep buying their garbage and accept this bullshit as normal. Nothing will ever happen as long as the majority of users don't care. That is, until their credit card gets stolen. Then they get pissed at their bank.
If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
Because some of us do not block some ads like Google's, because they are mostly text and very relevant. I never clicked on a flashing banner ad, but routinely clicking Google ads because I am interested.
Anyway, your attitude towards advertising is brainless. Lots of media — newspapers, magazines, TV — have always depended on it. It can be obnoxious, but it isn't the great evil that so many economically illiterate netizens think it is.
And if you actually buy stuff, which some of us overprivileged types have been known to do from time to time, advertising can be something you seek out. Recently I decided to buy a USB hard disk. I Googled those words because I wanted to see the Adsense ads. Does that make me a mindless slave of the advertisers? No, it makes me somebody who needed information, and used the most efficient way to get it.