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Heidi — How Malware Works Via Banner Ads
Published: 2012-01-06 00:54:45 +0000 UTC; Views: 27135; Favourites: 147; Downloads: 0
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Description
by $Heidi
How Malware Works Via Banner Ads
As many deviants know, deviantART has been working hard to combat malicious banner ads that infiltrate
our advertising network, and we've previously addressed this issue in
April 2011
and August 2011 .
In our ongoing effort to keep the deviantART community safe, we wanted to share the following
USA Today-produced
video that explains how malicious ads inundate the Web.
How Malicous Ads Inundate the Web
(Source: USA Today )
Protect Yourself
Malware advertising is an Internet-wide problem that affects many of the Net's top sites.
Keeping your browser up to date is one of the best ways to ensure your computer's safety.
Additionally, anti-virus programs offer another level of protection against malvertisements.
We strongly recommend that you download the latest version of your favorite browser.
Reports of Malware and Virus Advertisements
Our Ongoing Battle Against Malicious Ads
Related content
Comments: 769
Ads help pay for your free access to this site. And it's not just dA. Other sites that use ads to pay for a service that comes to you free of charge can infect you.
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It's not just on deviantART either. I don't have ads here, and some malware tried getting on my computer from another website. Managed to delete it but people should be careful~
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The fact that you still have this problem while other websites easily resolved this issue proves that you are shit when it comes to monitering your own advertisements.
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Firefox with the Add Blocker Plus addon.
Makes your browsing experience safer, not just on here but throughout the entire web. It also makes it a lot less annoying- especially on sites like Facebook. No more adverts covering the bottom of the videos you are trying to watch on Youtube.
I access the internet on friends computers without Add Blocker; I am always surprised by how visually noisy it all looks compared to what I have become accustomed to with the add-on.
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yep that addon is wonderful, i'd probably go crazy without it.
i visit a lot of sites that have crazy popups this thing stops most not all but most of them.
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...I follow a link to this story about malware on the web.
I get greeted by NoScript, saying it won't show this Flash content unless I tell it to.
Slightly ironic.
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My virus detector recently blocked 2 attempts at a toolkit coming from one of the advertisements on deviantart a few months ago, but since I installed ad block plus and noscript I haven't had any virus problems from adverts.
Manual virus removal is easy though if you know what you are doing, just go into safe mode (with networking if you want to download a free virus detector, I'd recommend from experience malwarebytes, spybot, and Microsoft security essentials). Once through the updates and downloads, disconnect the internet, find the virus name (in task manager, if you can), stop the process, disable it from startup (MSCONFIG) and then delete the registry key in the CLSSID, run and run once (they hide elsewhere but these are the most common) (HKLM or HKCU), Just remember to back up the registry first. Sometimes a system restore may work but not always. If you do a system restore, make sure your virus detector isn't Norton because they will clash and Norton will become disabled. 
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I get what dA is trying to do and I think it's awesome that the warnings are being put out and such but I have reasons for not updating by browser and I find it extremely annoying that there is now a bar over the top of the site telling me to update my browser in order to access dA. True I've been able to get around it for the most part but I don't see why my experience on the site should be made more difficult simply because I refuse to update my web browser for vaild reasons. I use an ad blocker, double check what I'm looking at to avoid phishing, have virus protection, and am intellegent enough not to click on, well ANY ads. I am unable to update my browser because some of the online programing utilized by the university I attend is not compatible with the newer versions and as such I find it beyond frustrating to have a bar across my navigation tools. Please allow each site member and visitor to make their own decision about updating and remove the bar from the top of the site.
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So you're telling consumers how to avoid malware when it is your service which has the problem?
Makes perfect sense 
Anyway, stop spamming me with this crap because it's 1) your ineptitude at running a website, not mine 2) not my problem because I paid you (bad choice, I guess?) and 3) I. am. paying. you. Stop spamming me.
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The message goes to all users to educate all of us about protecting ourselves. How can they read your mind to know that you already know about this!?!? Try seeing things from other people's points of view sometimes.
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If you read my comment, I said that they shouldn't have this issue. They are at fault for these issues, why should the user have to compensate for it? Secondly, Premium Members don't receive ads so for me, this is spam. They should only show to normal members and they should provide an opt-out.
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I don't see how it's spamming. They're sharing information for those who don't know. Plus It's not only deviantART, yesterday malware tried to get in my computer from another website.
I think it's more a case of "The more you know" than spamming. If you don't care, just delete the message an don't read.
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It is them spamming because I have a premium membership and they keep showing me these updates. I'm not paying them as IT consultants because honestly, I work on computers for a living and I know all this. They are at fault for these ads and are responsible in a court of law for it since their website is linking to them. They shouldn't be using an ad service that doesn't screen their ads first and it shouldn't be up to the user to fix their mistakes.
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Sure, but this was just an informative post and how the malware works. They are trying to fix the problem too, they did it in the past. I'm not a pro, but I'm a premium member too and I don't mind seeing occasional messages like that. That's just me though I guess. I don't mind at all.
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I'm seeing a elitist twat when I read that other guys text walls...
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I didn't go see myself but it wouldn't surprise me...
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If people don't want to see these messages though, I believe they have a right to complain. And no, if this was one of my websites, I would've changed ad services the minute that this problem started to happen. They're not doing everything they can. They're doing the bare minimum they can and telling the users to pretty much deal with it. It's the equivalent of a home service telling you, "Oh, well our employees like to break into your houses and steal things so you might just want to update all your security. It's not really our problem though."
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i don't see how the 2 are related.
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i used to get viruses on here from the ads, alot of time the ad never showed up but avast was always freaking out blocking viruses left and right.
now i have an ad blocker that disables them completely. my account looks like a premium account
it even removes the ads on youtube videos. i love my ad blocker. only a few get through it.
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and this is why i have the ad block app for chrome :/ blocks ads from all sites.....
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How do I get the ad block app?
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[link] it's the very first one...
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Oh wow, thanks for telling me.
JUST yesterday I had gotten malware on my computer, luckily I was able to delete it.
Though I was wondering how the heck I had gotten it, but now that I think about it, I had many deviant art windows open, and I guess I must have gotten it from one of the adds.
Thanks for letting me know!
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Get adblock plus. You won't have to worry hardly at all about malware from ads then.
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Thanks for the trojan your ads gave me over thanksgiving, btw. I really enjoyed having to do business on a friend's computer and reset to factory condition once I was finally home.
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Firefox add ons Adblock and Ghostery (looks like a blue jello ghost) to block any hidden ad cookies on any site you visit! It automatically tells you their names and their source url, so you can block these trackers with one simple click for an extra measure of protection. I also have AVG and AVAST and Malwarebytes with the name changed just in case for super-duper emergencies.
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AVG and AVAST with different names for their exes?
Thanks for mentioning Ghostery, I've never heard of it. I'll check it out.
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Interesting
I hate malare i had it on our old computer when i was online one day
and the computer slowed down drastically all of a sudden and made me so mad...
disabling me from doing much anymore on that computer!
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I've gotten these like a MILLION times. I've become a PRO at deleting them now from my computer haha. I've always been wondering if it was my fault. Now I know it wasn't!
This is really informative. Thank you!
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I just had this scare two days ago! Got a bullshit "Vista Antivirus 2012" popping up all over my computer after visiting a music site.Wouldn't let me access the net, open any files, nothing! The shittiest thing about this virus is that you can't even run a scan on your real antivirus, because the fake antivirus forbids it.
To get rid of it, I started the computer in safe mode with command prompt.
Next, I went into system restore (had to search for it because the virus started flipping out when I tried to access system restore manually via the startup menu) I then restored my system by going back a few days. Rebooted computer, ran a scan via AVG, and all was good! I hope that little description helps someone who's dealing with this stupid virus right now; it seems to be spreading everywhere!
Love, all~!
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Never found out... what monetary benefit will a virus generator/creator get, other than vicious satisfaction? The only other people who can benefit are the anti-virus guys.
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Computer-illiterate people will see Ads for Anti-Viruses on their desktop screens, sometimes even preventing them from accessing their files until the person purchases the fake product. Some trojans/worms/viruses can even steal important, confidential information.
This is why they do it. It's ridiculous, but it's the way it goes.
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Tks, Vincent. I reckon, considering the amount of information available on the internet today, access is of prime importance. And if access is denied, we can protect our vulnerable information from hackers. Thanks a lot!
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No. Look into adblocking for chrome and using a hosts file.
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Thank you so much 
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Not the browser that matters but the site we visit ! i have antivirus it's really awesome ,it automatically blocks the harmful site
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Firefox, Adblock+ and Avira and I'm all happy here...
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or simply get an adBlock and get rid of the problem alltogether....
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Custom HOSTS file > Adblock extension.
&&Firefox < Chrome < Opera
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I second malwarebytes. Excellent program!
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Malwarebytes is a solution I installed it and it work fine
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I'll stick with keeping adblock plus on for no, it makes loading pages on here a hell of a lot faster as the last time I was on here with adverts on they were far too intrusive and obstructing.
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I got a nasty ass virus from DA on a computer at work that immediately prevented my accessing the web and anti-virus programs to delete it. It was one of those banner adds that looks like a Microsoft warning that your computer "may have a virus, do system scan now" type. To get rid of it, I had to do system restore from safe mode and even then it tried to prevent me from continuing. After that I ran Avast, MalwareBytes, Spybot and CCCleaner to finally find and delete the corruption.
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Nah that'd be much too simple solution.
In all honesty they gotta have them to help fund dA :/
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