Big-name sites hit by rash of malicious ads spreading crypto ransomware

Found on Ars Technica on Tuesday, 15 March 2016
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Mainstream websites, including those published by The New York Times, the BBC, MSN, and AOL, are falling victim to a new rash of malicious ads that attempt to surreptitiously install crypto ransomware and other malware on the computers of unsuspecting visitors, security firms warned.

The new campaign started last week when "Angler," a toolkit that sells exploits for Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and other widely used Internet software, started pushing laced banner ads through a compromised ad network.

According to a just-published post from Malwarebytes, a flurry of malvertising appeared over the weekend, almost out of the blue. It hit some of the biggest publishers in the business, including msn.com, nytimes.com, bbc.com, aol.com, my.xfinity.com, nfl.com, realtor.com, theweathernetwork.com, thehill.com, and newsweek.com. Affected networks included those owned by Google, AppNexis, AOL, and Rubicon.

Please let us hear from representatives of the advertising industry and from politicians on their payroll, why running adblockers to protect yourself are such an evil product. They also could explain why it is important to run ads which allow exploits, instead of plain and simple jpg or png banners.