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Heidi — How Malware Works Via Banner Ads
Published: 2012-01-06 00:54:45 +0000 UTC; Views: 27131; 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
Last year I got a virus while browsing this site. It installed this weird program called ThinkPoint that wouldn't let me log onto my computer. I was soooo pissed. Luckily the local computer place was able to fix it for me, and none of my files were lost. Woohoo!
The funny thing is, I used Norton Antivirus back then (you have to buy a newer version every year to update it), and ever since I had that virus I've been using Avast! instead (the free version), which updates automatically every day. Been well-protected since, lol.
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Norton has never been really good, and it takes a shit load of memory aswell. >_> I never used it, and I've never had any problems.
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Too bad I didn't figure that out until my computer got attacked. lmao
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I got more viruses when I had norton then I did without before I found avast XD
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it's a horrible program D:
Heck.. when I had gotten my new computer.. first thing I did was hunt down every single file of that cursed program to get rid of it. One file took awhile though.. every time I deleted it.. norton "reinstalls" itself.. since when is a virus protection program acting like a god damn virus itself..
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Well, shit happens, nothing can be, nor should, be done to the past, just learn from your mistakes and you will go far.
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Sandbox! I choose you!
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I agree! I had Norton on my old pc, and it was WRECKED by a really nasty virus. I swear to god, Norton like. attracts viruses to your computer.
I now use AVG. it just cleared a horrendous fake antispyware off my pc yesterday, and this is just the trial version.
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Wow, that's insane. I use Comodo, and it works fine, with the exception that I cannot play StarCraft II on my laptop anymore. It's a pain alright...
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Ugh, that stinks!
Yah, Norton is just. I mean, it's so bad I'm shocked anyone even pays for that piece of crap. It uses soo much space on your pc (and you have to pay for their system registry cleaner just to properly remove every single norton file even AFTER you conclude your subscription and uninstall the program) all this would be forgivable if it provided protection from virsus. Which it does not.
I use Avast, AVG or TrendMicro, each are fantastic (in my view)
Never tried Comando before, though!
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Comodo is good alright, it comes with a sandbox even, so programs you haven't marked as safe gets run in the sandbox for increased safety. The sandbox also allow experiments with viruses if you'd like to. o.o
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Avast has a sandbox feature aswell c:
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Adblock Plus for Firefox! 
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One very easy preventive measure I've used to great effect: don't use the default account on Windows. The default account has immediate, unchecked administrative access to the system, which is easily exploited. Create a limited user account and do all your browsing there.
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So, I got one of these viruses yesterday. I've gotten them in the a as well, but a computer engineer friend of mine and I have been able to remove them. But it's really frustrating.
But, well, this time around I tried to fix it myself, and I seem tohave made it go into hiding. I definitely didn't delete it, but now I can't find it to get rid of it...anyone have any advice?
(Also, if you post anything about "get an adblocker!!!1!" I will reply rudely and then block you. I've already heard it. Websites get their money from the damn ads, and I am not going to take that away from them. I'd like dA to keep running, and they need money for that. >.<)
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I have to say.. I never gave a damn about ads.. never clicked them nor payed much attention, but I been seeing an increase in video ads that have sound, most not having a way to mute them... or even stop them from playing... that's my reason I have AdBlock now <-<
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I'll admit those are annoying, and there definfitely are more of them now, but I almost always have my volume on mute anyways, because there are too many other little noises it makes, when I click on things or it downloads updates or something... But because of that, if I forget to mute it sometime, it scares me SO much when I come across one of those ads. >.>
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So yeah.. I know Ad's do help keep sites running.. but they are increasing in their annoyance more then what I'm wanting to put up with..
Minding your own business.. maybe watching something on youtube or listening to a song, and suddenly there's a video AD blaring out the speakers.
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Do you know the name of the virus? If so, you can go to bleepingcomputer.com and see if they have a fix for you to completely clean your computer from it.
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Thank you, I did that, and I haven't tried it yet, but they do have a solution that ought to work. <3
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The sooner you do it, the less of a headache the virus will be. The best part about this site is that they make it easy to understand and easy to do. ^_^
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Wondows Anti-Virus is actually one of the fake anti-virus programs that "holds your computer hostage."
Don't believe me? It's happened to my computer twice. In order to stop it and not have to pay for it, you have to go through something very complicated (that I honestly don't remember) and get rid of the antire anti-virus softwear.
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I recalll having been hit by one before
I basically just kept closing all it's windows that popped up.. then it has a bit of downtime before it starts again.. and I used that time to get to where I needed to forcefully remove it.. of course the 'downtime' wasn't long so took a few times before I could finally make it.
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Ugh! Stinkin' thing sucks!
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Oh yeah. My sister's computer got hacked after i was looking through art. Killed the computer so badly. ;3;
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Hey, I don't use AdBlock, because ads for there a reason.
I keep my software up to date. If possible, more up to date than the current release.
I don't use firewalls besides the default, and in fact forward a number of ports openly.
And, hey - I haven't gotten a virus on this computer yet.
:-P
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"yet".
And Adblock now allows non-intrusive advertising to be shown.
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Informative, but I think I believe mentioning cross-cutting script ads would have been just as informative.
However, whenever my computer get a virus/trojan, I research antivirus software to see if I can find a better free antivirus software.
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You can do all the research you may want on antivirus software, but just know that there is no "better" antivirus. Every software has their holes and eventually a virus will get through no matter the antivirus. It's better protection to have more than one, but that will make your computer run more slowly. There's people who have NO antivirus on, and still get no viruses for like 10 years at a time. It just depends on how careful you are. You'd also want ad blockers. I like it because no more YouTube ads or ads here, etc.
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the funny thing about this is I have deleted this HT 4 times today, why does it keep coming back to my inbox?! ahhhh
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malware! how dreadful.
i hope their designers get eaten by bees!
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Would be better if the ads were actually useful. We might be more tempted to actually click on them.
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I wish viruses were like the old ones: Somewhat entertaining. Now they just try to steal your info :/
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Or they try to take your money, which is what the Win 7 Security 2012 (or Win XP Security 2012) tries to do. The only reason I caught that one was b/c the "windows" icon was all wonky.
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Do you know how to get rid of the Win Security virus?
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oops I may have misdirected how to find that ad blocker; you search for it as "adblocking" and it should show up.
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Alright. Thank you very much. ^^
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