Malicious Advertisements Appearing on High-profile Websites

Several security analysts believe that cyber criminals are employing a genuine toolkit, which is used to create Flash animation, for making malicious banner ads that made users believe their systems are infected with malware, as reported by SCMagazine on August 20, 2008.

Newsweek.com is one of the several renowned news sites suspected of displaying malicious banner advertisements and tricking visitors to install fake anti-malware programs.

According to Sandi Hardmeier, writer of Spyware Sucks blog, some malicious advertisements created by using Fuse Kit successfully bypass the scanning process of Websites or third-party ad networks, as reported by SCMagazine on August 18, 2008.

Sandi further added that she has seen a rise in complaints about malvertizing, which is a serious issue. Malvertizing is not only noticed at Newsweek but other big names such as MSNBC, Yahoo, Facebook, MySpace, lime.com and Hotmail also.

Security experts also said that the malicious banner ads displaying on Newsweek Website contain the address of Washingtonpost.com through feed. These ads take users to a site that claims of infection in the system and persuade users to install malicious software which will remove the infection from the system. The banner graphics pretend as an ad for www.forex.com claiming to bill itself as an online foreign currency exchange, as reported by The Register on August 18, 2008.

Moreover, Eckelberry, President, Sunbelt Software, an online security firm, said that Flash designers and developers use Fuse Kit products to create ads but cyber criminals could also use these products to insert malicious script inside ads, as reported by SCMagazine on August 18, 2008.

Eckelberry further added that the fake advertisements are made to serve malicious content suddenly, giving a surprise to hosted Websites. It is a very serious issue and ad networks should be vigilant to their advertisers.

Hardmeier also said that in-house ad makers should carefully scrutinize the graphics created using the program. She further added that ad networks must check the credentials of advertisers before displaying their ads, such as advertisers phone number, credit and physical address.

» SPAMfighter News - 27-08-2008

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