Rogue ads infiltrate Excite and Rhapsody
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When legit sites attack Excite.com and Rhapsody.com are the latest name-brand websites to be found serving advertisements that try to install malware onto users' machines, security researchers said. The sites join a Rogue's Gallery of mainstream destinations that include MySpace, Excite, Blick, and CNN.com, which all have been caught carrying tainted ads over the past few months.â¦
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Users of the music player should watch out for hacked themes; a flaw allows would-be intruders to take control of PCs.
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A serious security flaw in NullSoft's popular WinAmp player opens the door for crackers to seize control of vulnerable systems.
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The ad-supported music service SpiralFrog finally emerged from beta today. It's being billed as the first free music download service to provide fully licensed, DRM-enabled music for MP3 players (though not iPods). Its catch is that it compels you to first sit through a word or two from their sponsors.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft said it moved quickly to remove a banner advertisement that appeared on its instant-messaging program for a software application that falsely hypes security threats on a user's computer. "We immediately investigated the reports and removed the offending ads, as this is a violation of our ad-serving policy," wrote Microsoft spokeswoman Whitney Burk, in an e-mail Tuesday. Last week, computer security analysts noticed twoÂ advertisements for WinfixerÂ -- a self-described security program that also goes by the name ErrorSafe -- on Windows Live Messenger. Security companies have labeled it as a "potentially unwanted program." They believe the program falsely alerts users to problems with their computer and encourages them to purchase the application. It falls into an informally named category of program called "scareware," whose creators try to bully users into downloading their program or face problems with their computer. Microsoft, which called Winfixer "malware," did not detail how the ads appeared. However, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), a civil liberties and consumer group in Washington, D.C., has investigated how questionable ads promoting spyware and other malicious software have appeared on ad networks. The incident highlights how even a well-resourced company such as Microsoft can be vulnerable to the vagaries of complex associations of Internet advertising networks. "There are often a host of parties involved in the advertising chain, making it difficult to track the journey an advertisement takes from its original source to a user's computer," according to a CDT report released last year. It's extremely hard to police advertisements, as the organizations which supply them could suddenly substitute new ones, said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, a security software company. "There remains a risk that advertisements may be vetted and approved when first placed with an advertising network only to be later 'updated' to advertise less savory products," Cluley said. "This isn't just a problem for Microsoft, it's a problem for any company which is delivering advertisements to its userbase." The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has undertaken several actions against companies that have created special programs designed to exploit security vulnerabilities in computers, that -- like Winfixer -- purport to repair the machine. The Winfixer incident sparks concerns over end-user security and could be especially important for Microsoft. The company seeks to use advertising to subsidize the cost for free services such as Windows Live Mail, formerly Hotmail, and other Web-based services it's using to compete with online offerings from Google Inc. "For years I have been holding up MSN Messenger banner advertisements as an example of how advertisements can be safely served up to end users without putting them at risk of malware," wrote Sandi Hardmeier, a Microsoft Most Valued Professional and specialist in Internet Explorer, on her blog. "Now, everything has changed. This simply shouldn't have happened." Winfixer, which sells for around $39.95, has a shady history, experts says. It's a persistent program, constantly popping up on newly-created domains under various aliases, including ErrorSafe, WinAntiVirus and DriveCleaner, said Chris Boyd, security research manager for FaceTime Communications Inc. The changing names and versions are hard to keep up with for security analysts, let alone for ad network managers who may have no idea of the true nature of the program, Boyd said. "The suspicions are that it [Winfixer] is a quite sophisticated operation," Boyd said. At one time, Winfixer was one of several bad programs installed in a bundle by hackers on vulnerable machines, wrote Ben Edelman, a malware researcher and doctoral candidate at Harvard University, on his Web site. The hackers exploited the Windows Metafile (WMF) problem, a particularly dangerous security hole that appeared in December 2005 and prompted Microsoft to hurriedly issue an off-schedule patch. As always, users should be careful. "The responsibility ultimately falls on the users to be wary of advertisements which may be selling inappropriate or potentially damaging -- to data or finances -- goods," Cluley said. Â
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Blog: Those weird Core 2 Duo ads with the gyrating dancers apparently did their job. It's back to Centrino for Intel's marketing department.
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F-Secure warns of a rogue software application targeting the Mac that purports to clean a user's system.
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Find a way to tune out advertisers, and they'll find a new way to tune you back in.
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Last week&#39;s two-page advertisement in the The New York Times paid for by fans of Mozilla&#39;s Firefox browser is bringing in more downloads.
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Some Rhapsody users are huffing and puffing but the service won't let them in. Second outage since March blocks an unknown number of customers and some are frustrated that the company doesn't know when it will be fixed.
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The much-maligned copy protection program that Sony BMG Music Entertainment put on CDs last year is still posing a threat to computer users running certain versions of AOL or PestPatrol anti-spyware software.
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Ads for self-described security program Winfixer -- regarded by many as an unwanted program using questionable advertising to gain buyers -- got a swift eviction from MSN Messenger over the weekend. The problem of "scareware" on online ad networks, however, is much broader.
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Flaws in media players could automatically download malicious code, let hackers in.
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Malware that spreads via Yahoo Messenger also plays screeching music and hijacks IE's home page.
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Early this month, several Web sites began offering software promising ringtones and screensavers for certain cell phones. But those who downloaded the software found that it turned every icon
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Watching "premium content" in Windows Vista requires users to play nice with Microsoft's built-in digital rights controls. In Monkey Bites.
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UPDATE: Campaign grows from distributed denial-of-service attack to Digg bumps.