A recent incident on the Digital Spy forums involved visitors being greeted with an ad that loaded malicious software onto their computers. It was clear that the advertising system had been hacked into and visitors to the forums were subject to the hackers exploits.
Experts have reported an increase in the number of online ads with malware, and this could be due to the fact that publishers are outsourcing their ad space sales in order to boost their ad revenues due to the impact of the recession.
If you’re wondering how viruses can be contracted from online ads, there are a number of ways that this can happen. The virus could be incorporated directly within the ad, so when you click on an ad it automatically infects your computer, or the online ad can direct the user to a malicious website that steals passwords and/or identities. Indeed, it is quite unnerving to think an online ad that looks so appealing can lead to a virus on your computer, and realistically there is no way for basic web users to tell if the ad is infected or not. Plus, it is advisable to be wary of brand name ads that lure you in and then send you to a site where harmful ads get downloaded to your computer – not the ‘real’ website you thought it was. This was the case back in February 09 when technology news site Eweek.com displayed an ad on the homepage that pretended to be a promotion for fashion brand Lacoste. It turned out that a hacker had placed the ad there in order to direct users to a site where harmful programs would be downloaded to the computer in use.
It’s a shame that these things happen, but what can be done to stop it? Computer hackers and viruses have become a feature (albeit an unwanted one) of modern internet use, and some are trying tirelessly to stamp it out. Hackers look for websites that will attract a large amount of people so that the virus can reach as many as possible. This would explain why the Digital Spy forum was recently subject to a malicious ad.
Find out more about online ad viruses.
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