For the second time in less than six months, visitors to the Drudge Report say they got malware in addition to the Web site’s usual sensational headlines.
Matt Drudge denied that his site was infecting visitors, however it’s likely that the malware is coming from ads delivered by a third-party ad network and not the site itself.
“I can personally vouch for disinfecting my mom’s desktop yesterday after visiting this Web page, even taking a screenshot after beginning remedial steps to address the attempted infection,” a CNET reader wrote in an e-mail early on Tuesday. “I’m an IT professional in South Carolina so I know and understand the technology involved.”
The screenshot the reader provided to CNET shows a pop-up warning the viewer that the system is infected with malware and looks like a typical fake antivirus warning that criminals use to scare people into paying for software they don’t need.
The reader, who asked to remain anonymous, said he did not know exactly where on the site his mother had clicked before the fake warning appeared.
It’s very possible that the malware came via an ad. Many Web sites outsource the serving of their ads and ad networks have been used to deliver malware to sites since last year, affecting sites as prominent as The New York Times.
Call it Scareware… I have seen a lot of these in the last year or so. As far as I can tell, you have to download and install this malware for any damage to occur, thus it’s not really considered a virus. Don’t fall for it.
Near 100% chance they haven’t upgraded from IE 6 yet.
I had this problem last night with Digg.com
Maybe he went out on Huffington Post, got a virus and the virus was triggered by the next move which was to DrudgeReport.
Then again, maybe the leftists are fishing for a way to shut down drudgereport with a phony claim of malware. I’m sure they would get sympathetic ears from this administration. Especially now, to stop the bad news on Rahm.
Uh … go ahead and use IE. IE is for losers and I don’t really care what happens to them. Thanks!
So far I _think_ my main machine is okay but there have been times when my newest and best machine stayed off the net mostly and I just used my second best machine for surfing the net and it always runs Linux. If it gets taken out I’ll have a clean install up and running in short order not that it is likely to get taken out.
#20
When you have an environment that is able to Adapt and run a Scripting language from 6-10 different Scripting languages, and any flaw in 1 can be spread to your system.
I tend to like CHEAP and simple sites with FEW bells and whistles. And finding them is getting hard.
The only way to SEE this happening tends to be NoScript, which does 1 thing I love. Blocks 3rd party scripts..Scripts NOT from the site Im on.
LOL… i love how the techies amongst us read the article and thusly jump directly to offering the best tools and methods to reduce your exposure to the nefarious exploits trolling the web (and supposedly, Drudge) and leave it at that.. -taking the article at face value.
Meanwhile, in Reality, -what this baseless accusation really is, is yet another an attempt at a FEAR campaign (by a very desperate [lunatic fringe] White House cabinet) to keep the few dumbed down, blind and ignorant masses left from ever figuring out who’s propaganda is the truth. [/sarcasm]
(-should they ever wake up.)
Anyone in the field doing house calls or on-site malware/virus removal knows the primary surfing vector for malware, spyware and trojans is *ADVERTISEMENT SERVERS* -especially *name brand* severs like doubleclick.net that push infected Banner Ads and Scam product sites (like the plague of teeth whitener websites of late)
The best part of this [perfectly timed] BS story from the senate is that a nasty rash of trojans, malware and root-kits erupted in the wild a few weeks ago in mid-February, –do in part, to a bugged patch Microsoft pushed out to it’s loyal customers. -how convenient. In fact, in February, a major Adobe flash bug was also discovered that allows the attacker to operate your web-cam and other fun stuff. A new “Fake Alert” false anti-malware prgm hit the wire.., -a real nasty [new] flavour of the ZBot bot-net trojan also hit the wire.. [it focuses on stealing your banking data..]
–
Timing is everything…and like Rhammi said.. “never let a good crisis go to waste”. This will be the new method of stifling the truth, free speech and those who are at odds with pelosi and co. (and the whitehouse) -More state sponsored BS..
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#13 & #14..good call.
-as for the tech fix.. More than anything: MAINTAIN A GOOD HOSTS FILE!!!! -this will cut down your chances of infection by a good 70%-80%
The [long legged?] Mac-Daddy of well maintained HOSTS files with a focus on well-known malware sites can be found at: hpHosts’s site. -at 3mb+ this files blocks some 120k+ [*thousand*] known domains that are “not good” for your PC’s health.
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MVPS.org maintains a decent hosts file with a bias towards advert and tracking servers, as well as malware domains. -it is much smaller at around 650kb and 25k+ domains, with the added benefit of being well commented and having a decent tutorial on all things HOSTS.
(smaller file is also less apt to affect performance on low memory machines)
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BTW, those on dial-up or low, low bandwidth should definitely put google’s google-analytics domains in their hosts file. You will see a decent increase in your surfing speeds as almost every website under the sun uses google’s free web site traffic analysis service. -add these three to your hosts file.
ssl.google-analytics.com
google-analytics.com
http://www.google-analytics.com
-lastly… SURF as a limited user, or in a VM, or something like Sandboxie, or as mentioned above, check out Ubuntu. Vista users/lovers should check out Kbuntu. -looks just like Vista only way better. (has widget madness too)
all the latest Linux distros are now sporting some drop dead gorgeous, Aero-like graphic desktops that are lightening fast.
Graphic editors and small companies should seriously check’em out..it’s like having all the glitz and ease of use of a Mac, combined with the tweak-ability of a custom PC, only you don’t have to worry about the bloody copyright police or licensing fees. they are 3D accelerated as well..
go to http://distrowatch.com/ to see the Linux/BSD madness.. (over 2000 distros)
-free.
I guarantee…with this new “fee based” model GovCorp is foisting on us all, people will start to run to Linux based distros in droves. heck, you can install your favorite distro on a USB stick and take your whole “PC” with you were ever you go. it will boot off any box with a USB port..
yada yada…
i’m beat….good night..
-s
i use the ultimate in antivirus protectiom LINUX!
I don’t know about Drudge Report, but I was hit by the virus, “XP2010Antivirus,” right after going to Ref Desk (run by Matt’s Father) & using the White Pages search.
OK.. i found an excellent 2min Ubuntu 9.10 Demo on YouTube that shows off the 3D graphics of the desktop. The perfect melding of logical menus with the speed and slickness of picture cubes and piles (similar to OSX) -plus native virtual desktops.
IMO.. the vista/windows7 file managers are the most annoying navigators yet.
-anyway, enjoy!
http://youtube.co/watch?v=Agx7tpISsMY&feature=related
-s
#28, there has been a huge influx
of “fakealert” type viruses the past month or so..
get a good hosts file if you haven’t
already…the Ad servers are being exploited big time..plus a lot of dns spoofing going on to..
(and make sure no file sharing or administrative shares are active in your system)
-s
#26
ALL THIS POWER, and MS dosent support it.
They Bought out a good AV company and SCREWED it into the ground.
Its a wonder, that many of us have come to know..That MS, installed the backdoors, so they could install/show Advertising. and the key to do it would cost you $99 per year. AND THINK hackers would figure it out.
I am not sure why any good Republican would recommend GNU/Linux. It is neo-communism. You should use one of the BSD(s) instead. /Better yet, don’t use a computer at all. Return to the written word (and than maybe we can get these right and left wing whack jobs off our inter-tubes). /not so much…
Drudge certainly serves up malware from a government perspective. He serves up the truth.
Malware, scareware or otherwise is definitely not good to be hosting in any way. I would hope for the sake of the site, and it’s owner he isn’t doing it on purpose and it truely is a 3rd party ad.