Slashdot Mirror
Online Ads Are More Dangerous Than Porn, Cisco Says
wiredmikey writes "The popular belief is that security risks increase as the user engages in riskier and shadier behavior online, but that apparently isn't the case, Cisco found in its 2013 Annual Security report. It can be more dangerous to click on an online advertisement than an adult content site these days, according to Cisco. For example, users clicking on online ads were 182 times more likely to wind up getting infected with malware than if they'd surfed over to an adult content site, Cisco said. The highest concentration of online security targets do not target pornography, pharmaceutical, or gambling sites as much as they affect legitimate sites such as search engines, online retailers, and social media. Users are 21 times more likely to get hit with malware from online shopping sites and 27 more times likely with a search engine than if they'd gone to a counterfeit software site, according to Cisco's report (PDF). There is an overwhelming perception that people get compromised for 'going to dumb sites,' Mary Landesman, senior security researcher at Cisco, told SecurityWeek."
The summary, and the Security Week article, write that "Users are more 21 times more likely to get hit with malware from online shopping sites than if they'd gone to a counterfeit software site".
Cisco's report says that "Online shopping sites are 21 times more likely to deliver malicious content than counterfeit software sites."
Those statements are not equivalent. Online shopping sites have many more visitors than counterfeit software sites, so they have more opportunity to deliver malware. The same goes for the factor of 27 for search engines.
Also, it's hard to check the factor of 182 for adult sites, since the report doesn't include that number, or in fact even the words "porn" or "adult".
You would actually become safer.
What Cisco's report actually said is that behaviour often perceived as "safe" (such as online shopping) carries more risk than generally thought.
It has been known for a long time that ads are a primary malware vector, this is the reason many sane people block them.
Well thats what I heard...from a friend...he doesn't have that many accounts...
I've noticed similar shadyness with Google ads and just about all "sponsored content" you see on websites. You see the bullshit tags like "Doctors angered at woman's self treatment" or links to sites that seem to do nothing more than try to scare you to invest. The internet is full of bullshit. Somehow, for some reason Google is one of the richest companies in the world because of it. I'd like to know, who actually clicks on this shit.
This was always my response to the 'it is immoral to block ads' argument. I always said that if blah.com is hosting the ads itself I would be willing to allow them but as long as the content is from some unknown domain that I haven't chosen to trust, forget about it.
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
I consider "Adblock" and similar browser and computer add-ons to be *security* tools as much as bandwidth and other management.
Since the first time I noted browser exploits coming across common news and sales sites, I realized that the current model requires not trust of the sites we visit, but of the advertiser's sites... you know, like google and double-click and the others. I don't want to trust "unknowns" and so I block them unless I need them unblocked for access.
Actual context sensitive Google ads that I was too terrified to click on:
"Ball lightning: Browse a huge selection now. Find exactly what you want today."
"Ann Coulter Ringtone! Send this ringtone to your phone right now!"
Made me toss my browser cookies it did. After you toss your cookies these things stop for awhile, then build once again to a crescendo. Lately I have been getting ads with garden gnomes leering suggestively.
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
Please stop with the long, self-advertising posts. There's no doubt you are amazing and should start your own blog.
Would the risks cancel each other out?
Gently reply
If your responses weren't canned and also formatted in such a way that you believe your target audience is capable of no thought then you might not get modded down so much.
Really your comments look like something an adman on bath salts would come up with, you are two bolded sentences away from being the Time Cube guy.
Relax, just provide a place for people to start, or if you want to provide more information a single link to a guide will suffice. Oh, and you really should just go back to using an actual account instead of AC.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.