New York Times website hit by rogue antivirus ads
Monday, September 14, 2009
Some visitors to the New York Times website NYTimes.com this weekend experienced pop-ups in their web browser that directed them to a site for downloading a rogue antivirus product.
The Times said in a note to readers that the pop-ups were “generated by an unauthorized advertisement.” The newspaper advised readers who see such a pop-up to not click on it and to quit and restart the browser.
Web security experts warn that this type of rogue antivirus software - called scareware or rogueware – can itself be used to infect a PC with malware programs that can take over the machine.
Fake antivirus products make big money for cybercriminals who sell them through spam email campaigns and websites set up with malware. Cybercriminals also distribute rogueware via social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.
According to a recent report from Panda Security, the phony products rake in $34 million per month from people fooled by the scam.
The researchers said the growing variety of rogueware programs has led to roughly 35 million computers being infected each month.
"Rogueware is so popular among cybercriminals primarily because they do not need to steal users' personal information like passwords or account numbers in order to profit from their victims," said Luis Corrons, PandaLabs technical director.
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