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| Malvertising: Daily Mail ads 'briefly linked' to malware | |
| (1 day later) | |
| Readers of the Daily Mail's website were shown fake advertisements that linked to malware, according to a security company. | |
| It said bogus ads for shoes briefly appeared among the selection of banners displayed on DailyMail.com. | |
| Instead of online shops, it said, the ads linked to malware that could expose computers to "ransomware". | |
| Ransomware encrypts files on a victim's computer and asks for a payment to decrypt them again. | Ransomware encrypts files on a victim's computer and asks for a payment to decrypt them again. |
| The practice is known as "malvertising". | The practice is known as "malvertising". |
| Security company Malwarebytes said it had made the discovery last week and had published a report about its findings online. | |
| A spokesman for the Daily Mail later said that it had not been contacted by Malwarebytes about its findings in advance. | |
| However, the BBC has seen evidence that the security company did in fact try to contact the newspaper about the issue last Friday. | |
| By Monday morning, the security company said that the fake ads had been removed. | |
| Bogus bargains | Bogus bargains |
| Malwarebytes said the banners, purporting to be for an online shoe retailer, were published via a bogus ad server. | |
| From there, they were said to have been distributed via an advertising network that presents ads to readers on the Daily Mail's website. | |
| If a user clicked on one of the ads, said the security firm, they would be redirected to a well known piece of malware called the Angler Exploit Kit, which attacks vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer and Flash. | |
| There are various ways to protect yourself from ransomware, according to Tony Berning, senior manager at software company Opswat. | There are various ways to protect yourself from ransomware, according to Tony Berning, senior manager at software company Opswat. |
| "To protect against ransomware, users must back up their data regularly," he said. | "To protect against ransomware, users must back up their data regularly," he said. |
| "In addition to this, an important defence against ransomware is the use of anti-virus engines to scan for threats. | "In addition to this, an important defence against ransomware is the use of anti-virus engines to scan for threats. |
| "With over 450,000 new threats emerging daily, anti-malware engines need to detect new threats continuously, and will inevitably address different threats at different times," Mr Berning said. | "With over 450,000 new threats emerging daily, anti-malware engines need to detect new threats continuously, and will inevitably address different threats at different times," Mr Berning said. |