Hackers Use Banner Ads on Major Sites to Hijack Your PC

The worst-case scenario used to be that online ads are pesky, memory-draining distractions. But a new batch of banner ads is much more sinister: They hijack personal computers and bully users until they agree to buy antivirus software. And the ads do their dirty work even if you don't click on them.The malware-spiked ads have been spotted on various legitimate websites, ranging from the British magazine The Economist to baseball's MLB.com to the Canada.com news portal. Hackers are using deceptive practices and tricky Flash programming to get their ads onto legitimate sites by way of DoubleClick's DART program. Web publishers use the DoubleClick-hosted platform to manage advertising inventory." CT: Link updated to original source instead of plagerizer.

Comments

oh great

[deftones_325]

So now I need to buy penis-enlargment pills AND and anti-virus.

Re:oh great

[FuzzyDaddy]

Yes, those two things often go together.

Re:Never Experienced This

[Otter]

Adblock doesn't block these, as they constantly change the domain names. NoScript, which is otherwise way too paranoid and obtrusive for my taste, will do it.

Unrelated thoughts:

1) YouTube video is a rather inefficient way to distribute this analysis.

2) The security guy is way too kind to the sites hosting these ads. I've written to several of them, telling them how sleazy the ads are and how bad they make the site look, and the ads are still there.

3) How did YouTube decide that "ridiculously hot LATINA girl dancing, not asian!" is a Related Video? Except in the sense that it's always relevant, I mean.

Re:Never Experienced This

[doombringerltx]

3) How did YouTube decide that "ridiculously hot LATINA girl dancing, not asian!" is a Related Video? Except in the sense that it's always relevant, I mean. Finally a reason to RTFA

In Soviet Russia

[Scroatzilla]

...the monkey punches you.