Malware on the New York Times Website
There was a myth online about internet security that some people still believe. That notion is that if someone online stays away from “bad’ websites, then there is no danger. That security belief is false.
An illustration of how invalid that notion is can be found with the recent problems linked with The New York Times website:
“The Web’s most popular newspaper website got a little too close to the news this weekend, inadvertently serving some of its visitors a pop-up ad that masqueraded as a virus checker and urged users to download virus-like antivirus software.
The Times said on its website that the source of the bogus ads appeared to be an advertiser that had served legitimate ads for a week, but then switched to the illicit ones over the weekend.”
link: NYTimes.com serves up malware ads with news (oops)
additional link: Times Web Ads Show Security Breach
The New York Times website is a new site for millions of people online. The hackers only have to infect a small percentage of that heavy traffic in order to be successful. It is imperative that security programs be used, no matter which websites are visited.
Catherine Forsythe
*** Chris Pirillo currently has a security program offered to his reader at a healthy discount. It is Sunbelt’s VIPRE program.
2 Comments
leftystrat
September 15th, 2009
at 8:02pm
Welcome back. I was starting to wonder where you were.
Glenn
September 16th, 2009
at 2:52pm
Interesting, and more than a little concerning.
Hopefully the Lockergnome site pays close attention to it’s advertisers and the content of their advertisements. If something can be slipped to a major site such as the New York Times, it is possible to slip it through here, as well, though I would hope it might be a bit harder.