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The Next Ad You Click May Be a Virus
Jay notes a Wall Street Journal report about ad networks unintentionally selling empty space to malware loaders (the link is to a syndicating site that doesn't require a subscription to view). The submitter comments: "The labeling of the fake ad sellers as hackers is pretty bogus; there's no hacking involved. Simply sign up for one of these networks, create your fake site, put up another company's creative, and you're good to go." The incidents being reported go back a few months, but the pattern of this criminal activity seems to be coming clear only recently."EWeek.com, a technology news site owned by Ziff Davis Enterprise, in February displayed an ad on its homepage masquerading as a promotion for LaCoste, the shirt maker. The retailer hadn't placed the ad — a hacker had, to direct users to a Web site where harmful programs would be downloaded to their computers, says Stephen Wellman, director of community and content for Ziff Davis."
I mean really, its all just semantics (and semiotics) and we're all infected...cookie anyone?
While the internet is a wonderful thing; I can't help but wonder where did all of the douchebags come from. Every liar, cheat, grifter is taking their shot at fucking up the sandbox we all play in. Its all fun and games when windows users get hosed, but after awhile even that gets old. I am just a tired old man. It makes me sad that my poor view of humanity gets reinforced every time I turn around.
... who clicks ads? (other than for click fraud purposes)
Another company's "creative?" What the hell does that mean? Is it some industry term for "crappy banner ad?"
We have a little something called Ad Block Plus.
After years of not using a signature, I am going to make one to say the following: Fuck Beta
"direct users to a Web site where harmful programs would be downloaded to their computers, says Stephen Wellman, director of community and content for Ziff Davis."
.exe and .dll again, an exclusive Windows issue disguised as a "PC" issue.
Do these affect Linux or Apple PC's? I'm guessing it's the good old Windows
Why is it that areas where Microsoft want to portray a large market share (either exaggerated by reports from shills or real) they have the words Microsoft and Windows all over the stories, yet when it's something they have an almost 100% market share on (malware compatibility and vulnerability), there's no mention of either Microsoft or Windows; it's all just PCs.
FAO the Microsoft Astroturfers, it was a rhetorical question but feel free to do your job and mod me down for pointing out the obvious. Wait, Ziff Davis does ring a familiar bell, hmmmmm.
I've been cleaning crap off of computers installed by ad popups for the past year now.
And when all the good sites on the internet have disappeared, the people who made them will be back on business on pay sites taking subscriptions.
Better to just get paid directly for quality content, than splitting it with a whole mountain of third parties.
Oh wait, the content isn't so great that people will pay for it? Bummer.
Actually it is the webmasters and advertisers fault that so many of us use ABP and Noscript. Pull up a chair young'un and let me explain.
Back in the old days (cue my oldest saying "when folks had 8-tracks and dinosaurs ruled the earth") ads were just a few lines of pretty text or a picture, or hell if you wanted to be fancy a little .gif. But we had us a problem. you see, all these video formats were competing, and most really REALLY sucked. Anybody who went through the heyday of Real player on Windows knows of which i speak, so somebody came up with flash, which worked okay.
But then the evil advertising execs saw the flash video and said "You know what? I bet we can use this to irritate the living hell out of folks. Let's see them ignore our fricking ads now baby!" and thus was born the Bonzi Buddy of web evil, the "shoot the monkey and win a ---" ads. And they truly were irritating as all hell. but then the other ad execs saw this, and being the evil creatures of Satan that they are, said "we can top that!" and so ads became ever more annoying and evil. In fact I am surprised somebody hasn't put that damned frog in a looping flash ad with little text that says "buy coke"
Hell for all I know, they may have. I and many other wouldn't know, because one day a great and noble man named Wlad came along and said "Damn, that's irritating as fuck!" and being the great man that he is, created the wonder that is ABP. And all was good. Now if you and any other web masters want to appeal to those of us blessed with the ABP to let your puny site poison our eyes, that is fine. but woe be unto you if you show us even ONE of those damned "shoot the monkey and win a ---" ads for we shall put you in the blacklist for all eternity. Amen.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Well, there's content that you want to read but wouldn't want to pay for. It's something "nice to have", but you wouldn't spit out dough for it.
All those "nice to have" pages would vanish if it weren't for ads.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
And in return adblock and noscript is what keeps these pages in existance.
If you did see those full page flash ads, and you had no chance to block them, would you still visit the page? Or would it not be worth the annoyance and you'd just turn away in disgust? Using adblock and noscript keeps their impressions up and thus keeps the pagemasters from learning that annoying the living hell out of your visitors isn't how you attract people.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
> Personally, I wonder if it was a good idea to unlock those doors and pave some ways.
It was certainly NOT a good idea. It was, however, inevitable. Not you, not me, not anyone could have stopped it any more than you could have stopped the widespread use of the printing press. In fact, even *less* than you could have stopped that.
If you did see those full page flash ads, and you had no chance to block them, would you still visit the page? Or would it not be worth the annoyance and you'd just turn away in disgust? Using adblock and noscript keeps their impressions up and thus keeps the pagemasters from learning that annoying the living hell out of your visitors isn't how you attract people.
People don't care. I find internet ads to be just as annoying as television ads, but most people keep using both without blocking them. Most of the time, when I use someone else's computer, they have no ad-blocking software at all. It's not just lack of knowledge. I just asked my sister if she wanted to block online ads. She said "It's fine. I don't want to mess with it. I really don't care at all." Ads are everywhere in our culture, and most people don't give a damn.
I'm never going to click on ads whether or not I can see them. There's no reason to have them sitting around annoying me.
Do you have any idea how long it takes to dig graves for twenty-three oak trees?
Admittedly it's very rare but Macs are not totally immune.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8096822.stm
The answer for this is for both Mac and Linux users to unite behind open standards in protocols and formats, and in Apple's case, demand Apple install them on their stuff. Anytime a user (on any OS) has to install a plugin to see a piece of content on a website, they are potentially vulnerable to installing a fake or infected player. If players are pre-installed, the content shows with no need to install. There'd need to be a no-autostart option on people's browsers too, to prevent unwanted code running.
Of course Microsoft and Apple, along with others like Adobe like using their own formats and protocols to help lock users in so they're not helping their own customers cause.
It is time for users of all platforms to start demanding open standards, which benefit all of us, give us all choice and free us from being locked to any one vendor. Many *nix people have been calling for it for years, it's time that voice was strengthened.
I have a pretty simple setup. I block all Flash, but otherwise allow ads. I don't block Flash because I want to block Flash ads, I block it because it's almost always annoying and pointless and crashing my computer or slowing it down, regardless of whether it is an ad or not. The fact that Flash ads are blocked is collateral damage.
And I've found that I don't mind most non-Flash ads. I barely ever click on any (save for Google search results), but I don't mind them 99% of the time. And if I do mind them, I just close the window and find the same content on a different site.
So here's a simple rule: If you want me to see your ad, don't use Flash.
I think you got modded down because your posts read like Timecube.