News Websites Posing Malware Threat Revealed

In a report released by the News Corporation (the world's second-largest media conglomerate), the Herald Sun has been forced to eliminate malware that would have been transmitted to readers from their website as revealed by a News Limited subsidiary on July 13, 2011.

The malware is implemented in the form of a pop-up window and is installed only in occasions when the user authorizes it.

Remarking on the issue, Peter Clark, Chief Digital Officer at The Herald and The Weekly Times held that the malware is implanted in digital publications only reported zdnet.com.au on July 13, 2011.

Publishers of the website heraldsun.com.au also confirmed about an attempted attack on the website of Herald Sun on July 11, 2011. malware were attached on a number of files on the site, revealed Clark.

Clark also abstained himself from revealing additional information on the attack for the fear of future attacks.

In fact, James Turner from Sydney-based IT advisory services company Intelligent Business Research Services (IBRS) while confronting smh.com.au on July 13, 2011 acclaimed that Herald Sun should take opinion from hosting providers of their web on adopting suitable preventive measures.

Turner also revealed how disgraceful it is on the part of a website to pass malware to its customers. He is surprised about how some organizations ridiculously adopt cheaper path and do not understand the intricacies of valuing IT security measures.

According to Chris Gatford, Director Of Security Consultancy Sydney-based HackLabs, majority of users are more prone to be attacked by malware as they are less net savvy and might over and over again run older versions of operating systems on their PCs and web browser that lack necessary security patches, reported smh.com.au on July 13, 2011.

However, the hacking operation of The Herald Sun was exposed only when the parent News Corporation and UK arm News International went into the depth of the matter and at the instant during which the Sunday paper News of the World was compelled to close its operation due to the hacking of confidential voicemail accounts.

The News of the World scandal has also witnessed the publication of confidential information by hacking into the personal voicemails of war widows. A report from the Reuters even claimed about the exposure by hackers when they poked into the personal details of families victimized with child murder.

The Herald Sun recommended users at risk to run a full anti-virus scan as a preventive measure.

Related article: NZ Researcher Uncovers Hacking Techniques Against Vista

» SPAMfighter News - 7/20/2011