Microsoft Files Lawsuits against Companies Running Malvertisements

According to Microsoft Corp., it sued 5 apparent distributors of 'malvertisements' (malicious Internet ads) which trick unwitting end-users into downloading malware online on their computers.

The software giant said after filing the lawsuits against Soft Solutions, DirectAd Solutions, ITmeter, ote2008.info and qiweroqw.com that these organizations had employed adverts for malware distribution or for presenting dubious websites which sold 'scareware' to innocent end-users.

According to Tim Cranton (Associate General Counsel of Microsoft), the company's filings in Seattle's King County Superior Court emphasized that they knew the modus operandi of the defendants. He stated that malvertising in general worked through malware disguised as innocuous ads on the Internet, as reported by CNet on September 17, 2009.

Cranton further said that although his company wasn't still familiar about the particular persons who were purveying the malvertisements, yet it was filing the suits so that the alleged criminals could be exposed and they could be stopped from carrying on with their attacks.

He added that the act of suing criminals was important as online advertising assisted in running the Internet. It works as fuel which drives search technologies. According to him, malicious abuse and frauds committed against Internet ad bases were thus a severe danger to businesses and consumers as well as the industry that widely used such free services.

Furthermore, Microsoft's officials stated that the organization had previously tried to deal with advertisements posted by malware developers, but the current step to directly and legally act against scareware and malvertisement authors was the company's first such attempt.

The security specialists stated that scareware were infective and malicious software as users were normally scared into purchasing them after being falsely told that malware had infected their computers. They added that while such software had been into existence for many years, it was only in recent months that the products had developed into a vital problem.

During the 2nd week of September 2009, there were reports that The New York Times inadvertently executed a company's ad on www.newyorktimes.com, whereby the company first pretended to be an authentic advertiser but subsequently started marketing bogus antivirus software.

Related article: Microsoft Patches Live OneCare to Tackle Quarantined E-Mails

» SPAMfighter News - 10/8/2009