Hackers Infected Gizmodo with Malware

According to cyber security researchers, hackers had placed adverts loaded with viruses on Gizmodo, the largest gadget website of the world receiving over 3 Million visitors daily.

Brian Lam, Editor of Gizmodo, stated that he was extremely regretful about the malware infection, which had affected the website's ads section on Suzuki advertisements during the 3rd week of October 2009, as reported by TheRegister on October 27, 2009.

Lam continued that the online crooks managed to dupe Gizmodo's ad sales team using a complex scam. However, the problem had been fixed, and it was hoped that merely a few individuals had been affected. Lam added that as editors, writers and tech geeks, they didn't take such instances lightly.

He further added that they would've noticed the problem much earlier, but that didn't happen as the site's editorial team don't use Microsoft Windows.

Graham Cluley, Tech Guru at Sophos, said that hackers who attacked such a gigantic blog clearly aimed high, as reported by TheRegister on October 27, 2009. Cluley continued that the hackers' intention was to contaminate the maximum possible computer users with their corrupt advertisements, as they were aware of Gizmodo getting huge traffic. So if the miscreants could once contaminate the website with their malicious ads, they could likely have some visitors become their victims, the expert added.

Furthermore, the researchers said that the report of the attack didn't spell out the problem's nature, but certain modern attacks were capable of infecting Windows systems via merely viewing an ad. Other attacks gave warnings, which prompted users to download some programs and pay for them, These downloads pretended to safeguard computers from actually non-existent worms.

The 'malvertising' problem seems to be proliferating. During September 2009, hackers attacked the New York Times pretending to purchase advertisements for Vonage the Internet telephony company. In another instance, hackers posted 'malvertisements' via the Double Click service of Google that was subsequently syndicated amongst various websites.

Eventually, users need to maintain caution while surfing the Web and install antivirus software to prevent malware infections, said security reseachers.

Related article: Hackers Redirect Windows Live Search to Malicious Sites

» SPAMfighter News - 11/5/2009