Yahoo has been accused in the past of serving Malware, Adware, making things hard on users, among other things. Often this is hype, and that might be the case in this recent episode. The problem is that Yahoo is linking to known problematic sites in their advertising.
Is Yahoo serving Malware? Is this another case of 3rd parties using legit ad systems for malicious means? (IMG:J.Anderson)
The issue started over the past weekend when the Spyware Sucks blog alerted people to “maladvertizement’s” appearing in SWF ads on Yahoo’s Mail, Astrology, and Groups portals. Sandi Hardmeier, who runs Spyware Sucks, had this to say in one of her posts, “And still the problems continue....I wonder how many hits Yahoo gets per day, and how many people are being exposed to fraudware, while these advertisements are allowed to remain online...”
These “harmful” ads can contain redirected links to Malware, or simply advertise junk products and services. Sometimes they attempt to trick people into installing known malicious programs. With the exception of the Malware, the ads are otherwise harmless, and to date no reported attacks or infections have surfaced. Likewise, Yahoo is remaining silent on the issue.
In the past there have been numerous reports of Malware being injected in to several advertising systems, malicious ads appeared on Google, MSN, and Yahoo. The problem is that those serving the ads, the Yahoo’s and Google’s, often get their banners and materials from third parties.
The only serious way to block “maladvertizment’s” is to screen where you get your ads from, and to develop serious vetting processes.
If Yahoo removes the ads, or if there is proof of infection or attack related to this story, this article will be updated.
http://msmvps.com/blogs/spywaresucks/default.aspx
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