Hackers Still Using Ads To Spread Malware

So you think you've got your PC security all sorted out?

Have you clicked on an advertisement on a website latley and it didn't take you to anything related to the original ad? If so, you are not alone.

You may ignore strange pop-up quizzes, and give invitations to look at Anna Kournikova's.ru site a miss. You don't open any attachments from unknown sources, and your antivirus software has never let you down.

Guess what? Your computer may still be infected. Right now evil hackers may be sifting your hard drive for passwords, bank account numbers and personal documents.

The latest threat for Internet users is malvertising, which is basically the use of ad networks for distributing malicious software. Computer security experts say the latest product of botnet scientists is designed to run on mainstream websites, slipping under the radar of the major ad agencies who place the banner ads and pop-ups. But what's scary is this new class of malware requires no interaction from users. It simply attacks the latest flaws and vulnerabilities in Adobe or Java.

The malvertisers are using the good name of the website or ad agency to point browsers at their servers, which load up the malware concealed in PDF, Flash, Java or similar files. The banner could include a single pixel iframe, which has a malicious PDF. If the machine is like most Outlook set-ups, it will automatically be opened by Acrobat and the machine then joins a botnet.

The machines sending the message could be anywhere and best protection is as always to patch and patch and patch. Users should also switch to Firefox rather than Internet Explorer, and make use of their preference panels so the browser does not automatically open PDFs.

Hackers are trying their best to stay one step ahead of cyber security, which is why using a reliable antivirus program is of utmost importance for the safety of your computer.