Hackers Can Now Deliver Viruses via Web Ads

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118480608500871051.html?mod=todays_us_market
place

Hackers Can Now Deliver Viruses via Web Ads
By EMILY STEEL
July 19, 2007; Page B1

Web ads are becoming a delivery system of choice for hackers seeking to
distribute viruses over the Internet.

In a development that could threaten the explosive growth of online
advertising, hackers have started to exploit security holes in the
online-advertising chain to slip viruses into ads. Just going to a site that
shows such an ad can infect a user's computer.

In May, a virus in a banner ad on tomshardware.com automatically switched
visitors to a Web site that downloaded "malware" -- malicious software
designed to attack a computer -- onto the visitor's computer. ScanSafe Inc.,
one of the first security firms to discover the virus, estimates the banner
ad was on the site for at least 24 hours and infected 50,000 to 100,000
computers before Tom's Hardware removed it.

After the incident, Tom's Hardware's parent, TG Publishing, was acquired by
BestofMedia Group. The company says it won't discuss what may have happened
under prior management. But a person familiar with the situation says that
Tom's Hardware was unaware of the threat and that ads on the site were
supplied by an outside server and likely appeared on a number of other Web
sites as well. Users of an online forum hosted on the Tom's site discussed
the case, with some people noting that their antivirus software had
protected their computers and others lamenting that a virus had been
downloaded onto theirs.

Clicking on ads that appear in the sponsored-link results section of
Web-search engines can also be very dangerous. Web-security firm McAfee Inc.
found in May that 6.9% of sponsored links led to suspicious sites that might
have automatically downloaded malicious software.

"Not being able to offer a safe haven is one of the things that could stand
in the way of reputable advertisers and dollars," says Scott Howe, president
of Internet-ad network Drive Performance Media, a unit of Seattle-based
aQuantive, which Microsoft Corp. recently agreed to buy for $6 billion.
"That's the single biggest fear that many advertisers have....It has taken
them a hundred years to build their brand, and it can be destroyed pretty
quickly if they are not careful."

...



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