For approximately four days from at least December 31, 2013 to January 3, 2014 and possibly for a longer period of time, Yahoo users in Europe were served advertisements on the Yahoo site that were infected with malware. This malware redirected users to a site that was hosing the exploit kit known as “Magnitude” which downloaded various viruses onto user’s computers and which spread to thousands of users. The United Kingdom, France and Romania were affected the most out of the European users. Users in the United States were not affected according to the information from Yahoo.
What were these malvertisement virus attacks?
These forms of malware attacks have been dubbed “malvertisement viruses” and are very deceptive since users can get infected by simply loading a website. These websites have been designed to automatically download the virus or viruses to unsuspecting Internet users. These malvertisements have been seen on many legitimate sites for the last few years and a computer user can encounter them just about anywhere on the Internet, as shown by the Yahoo attack.
How did Yahoo get infected with malvertisement virus?
Yahoo said that they don’t know how the malvertisements got into their ad network. They have speculated that the ad was submitted properly and then the hackers inserted the malicious code after the ad had been accepted by Yahoo. Perhaps Yahoo needs to change the way it accepts ads or restrict changes to the ad instead of approving anything and everything just to make a buck.
I hope this will give them incentive to tighten up the security they have in place when ads are submitted to their ad network. If a giant like Yahoo can get exploited by cyber criminals, just think what might be out there on the Internet on regular, ordinary small sites!
How do I get help for malvertisement virus removal if I do if I get a malware infection like this?
If you get any type of malware infection on your computer, including from a malvertisement, we are ready to help you. Call Mad Dog Computer in the Portland Metro area for our flat-rate Virus/Spyware/Malware Removal Service.
Call Mad Dog Computer for your expert Portland computer repair at 503-922-1599. We promise to give you quality service at a price that is both competitive and reasonable! We serve the entire Portland Oregon metro area.
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