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New York Times Web Site Hit With Malicious 'Advertisement'

by Caleb Johnson on September 14, 2009 at 12:12 PM

Such problems seldom affect major Web sites, but an "unauthorized advertisement" has been causing trouble for some visitors to The New York Times site, CNET News reports. Even more odd, the Times isn't sure how the ad got on the site or even if the site has been compromised by the attack. In a note to readers, the Times said that it is "working to prevent the problem from recurring."

While the ad doesn't appear to be very dangerous, it's certainly very annoying (Update: see below). When you visit the site, the ad warns that your computer might be at risk of infection and sends you to a site that supposedly offers anti-virus protection. (Although there have been no reports on the subject, and we certainly aren't going to download it ourselves to find out, this 'anti-virus' program is likely malicious.) Here's where it gets annoying. A reader told CNET News that the scam "hijacked his browser," forcing him to close out of it, since he couldn't leave the page. Another reader (who also took the screen capture above) told All Things Digital that he realized the ad was a scam, since he runs OS X and the ad mimics a Windows XP page.

Even if you're not trolling questionable sites, be sure to keep an eye out for scams like this. There's been a recent rash of ads spreading malware on reputable sites as a result of ad networks farming out ads to third parties. Remember: If you find yourself redirected to a suspicious site, close it out (the browser, that is). [From: The New York Times, CNET News and All Things Digital]

Update: The pop-up advertisement urges you to perform a scan of your PC for malicious software. If you click the "scan" button, the fake anti-virus software will claim to detect 38 infections. What has actually happened is the ad has installed a trojan on your system that will likely present you with fake warnings about virus infections and try to lure you into purchasing the fake security software. Thankfully, it appears that, if you don't click "scan," the trojan is incapable of installing any additional software, or stealing any data. If you did click, we recommend you check out ComboFix, a freeware spyware remover.
http://xml.channel.aol.com/xmlpublisher/fetch.v2.xml?option=expand_relative_urls&dataUrlNodes=uiConfig,feedConfig,entry&id=489673&pid=489672&uts=1253022994
http://cdn.channel.aol.com/cs_feed_v1_6/csfeedwrapper.swf
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Tags: hack, malware, new york times, news, NewYorkTimes, scam, top, web, windows

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