Malvertising Campaign Infected Thousands of Users Per Day For More Than a Year (softpedia.com)

An anonymous reader writes from a report via Softpedia: Since the summer of 2015, users that surfed 113 major, legitimate websites were subjected to one of the most advanced malvertising campaigns ever discovered, with signs that this might have actually been happening since 2013. Infecting a whopping 22 advertising platforms, the criminal gang behind this campaign used complicated traffic filtering systems to select users ripe for infection, usually with banking trojans. The campaign constantly pulled between 1 and 5 million users per day, infecting thousands, and netting the crooks millions each month. The malicious ads, according to this list, were shown on sites like The New York Times, Le Figaro, The Verge, PCMag, IBTimes, Ars Technica, Daily Mail, Telegraaf, La Gazetta dello Sport, CBS Sports, Top Gear, Urban Dictionary, Playboy, Answers.com, Sky.com, and more.

Comments

We knew this

[Anonymous Coward]

Its why Ad-blocking has become a thing. So, yeah, we're gonna keep blocking ads to avoid this crap.

Stop using Flash. Don't even allow it on your website.
Bring advertising in-house. Its not 1997 anymore, there is no reason to rely on 3rd party platforms for advertising. Everyone knows the internet is a thing now and wants to advertise on it.
Stop looking at those who block ads as your enemies. These are the smart consumers you want to engage with. Unless your shoveling shit of course.

We warned you and warned you this was happening, but you were blinded by money and laziness. Now you're merely getting what was coming to you.

Re:We knew this

[TroII]

There is no evidence that suggests you're any safer with adblock

The very article you're commenting about is proof that you're safer with an ad blocker.

The answer to malvertising

[jrumney]

Make sites responsible for the ads they carry. The address networks (Google and whoever is left that they haven't bought yet) will then be forced by the customers with enough power to start taking responsibility, which will incentivise them to do more about the problem. As long as we allow companies to pass the buck, advertising will remain an opportunity for criminals to exploit.

Re:The answer to malvertising

[WorBlux]

Control = responsibility. The ultimate decision weather to serve an advert or not, lies with the domain controller., and thus the ultimate responsibility. Make the primary site liable to malware served through it. In effect this will force ad networks to offer indemnification policies on their ads, and the pointy hair types will finally see a reason to properly screen and sandbox advertisements.

Thank you, Adblock!

[elrous0]

And, to think, several of those sites had the nerve to chastise me for using it.