Anti-virus company Avast is reporting that drive-by malware is now popping up via Website advertising from mainstream companies like Yahoo!, Fox and Google, which is a very worrying sign of the times. This form of malware typically automatically infects a visitor to a website if they don’t have proper anti-virus protection installed, and the fact that it can be injected from the site via advertising is a dangerous new precedent.
The only thing we can stress is for readers to keep a high quality anti-virus package installed on their computer, one which incorporates a good web browser protection module like the free Link Scanner from AVG or Kaspersky Internet Security etc. The days when you could just blithely waltz around the Web without protection are long gone folks. Alas.
Found in ads delivered from those networks was JavaScript code that Avast dubbed “JS:Prontexi,” which Avast researcher Jiri Sejtko said is a Trojan in script form that targets the Windows operating system. It looks for vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader and Acrobat, Java, QuickTime, and Flash and launches fake antivirus warnings, Sejtko said. Users don’t need to click on anything to get infected; a computer becomes infected after the ad is loaded by the browser, Avast said.
Well that’s excellent news Michael! All we have to do now