14 DAY TRIAL // Cyber criminals are downright geniuses when it comes to addressing a specific category of people with their malware. Is somebody keen on watching shows on TV rather than on the Internet likely to be very aware of the dangers on the Web? Not likely, although it could happen. What better way to deliver Trojans other than inserting them into ads on the site the above described people would visit?
Security experts from Sophos have discovered that some of the adverts on ITV.com and Radio Times websites were not at all what they looked to be, actually fooling users into downloading software that would infect their personal computers. The Macromedia Flash file was identified to be Troj/Gida-B. The ads have since been removed, and a Radio Times Forum thread reads that "We have now identified the offending ad and it has been removed from the site. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused."
The ad was for downloading a program dubbed Cleanator for Windows and MacSweeper for Apple Macs, and it supposedly detected malware already installed and removed it. That's irony for you, they say they take it away and in fact you get some more.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said: "TV viewers are accustomed to adverts getting in the way of what they want to watch - they're probably not as used to adverts on their favourite TV websites delivering unwanted code straight to their Desktops. [?] Worryingly, it's quite likely that it is not just these websites that are affected - other websites could also be carrying poisoned adverts. Our own research has found that 83 percent of infected web pages are hosted on completely legitimate websites," as Web User reports.
A quick statistic from Sophos has showed that every 14 seconds a new webpage gets infected. There's a troublesome thought.