Online Swindlers Launched Scareware Attack on Philly.com’s Sports Portal

Sports fans in Philadelphia who lately visited Philly.com might have been infiltrated with malware in case they have reverted to a popup claiming that some malware has infected their machine.

The advertisement is actually a scareware and if some users happen to download the offered bogus anti-virus software, their system might essentially get malware-infected.

Google, the software giant, announced the attack. It posted a disclaimer beneath any link that connects to Philly.com. The disclaimer states that there might be some malicious files on the website.
In the context of this malware attack, Wendy Warren, Vice President and Editor at Philly.com, said that in order to probe the situation, the organization is aggressively active, according to the statement published by technicallyphilly.com on April 30, 2010.

The Editor further said that the organization is unsure of any malcode. Even though the malcode (malicious code) can't be discarded, its presence is not yet evident. She added that the team will examine each and every code authored by them.

The report also says that the website's administrators have disabled third-party widgets Flash-based ads in the website's Sports page, where the malcode has been discovered, she added.
Worryingly, the website has been circulating malicious code earlier also and it's not the first time that it is facing such a situation. In June 2009, it was reported that Philly.com confronted a malware attack. However, after the executives examined its ad networks, they asserted that no such account of suspicious embeds were there on the website.

Moreover, during early 2010 also, a similar attack on the website of Minnesota Star Tribune was launched. There, numerous users reported infections from a malicious link, and the link didn't come into the notice of the newspaper.

According to the security experts, to a great extent, this attack relates to what Microsoft claimed in its latest annual report that rogue security programs are among the fastest- growing malware categories. In H2 2009, the security products of the software giant Microsoft cleansed malware related to rogue security software on 7.8 Million systems, up 46.5% from H1 2009. According to the authors of the report, such a growth is the result of rogue security software offering scammers more payoffs in comparison of other Internet threats.

Related article: Online Card Fraud Shows Greater Tendency Than Chip and Pin

» SPAMfighter News - 5/12/2010