Linked – Simply viewing this malicious ad will infect your computer with ransomware

And this is why we stay up to date on security updates, and also a big part of why I use and ad blocker.

A new malvertising campaign from the AdGholas hacker group infects victims with ransomware, even if the victim takes no action other than viewing a particular advertisement. The revelation came as part of a Tuesday report released by security provider Proofpoint.

As an aside, I’ve noticed more and more websites either nagging me about using and ad blocker or outright blocking me until I disable it. I recently felt kind of guilty about using it on a site that provides free tools for websites that I use, and decided to go ahead and turn it off for their site. Two minutes later the ad-network prompted me to download a “Flash update” that was not from Adobe.

So umm no. I don’t feel guilty any more. I have to do what I have to do to stay secure, and not letting drive-by malware infect my system because your site is setup in some advertising network that gets hacked is part of that. If you don’t like it, secure your site.

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/simply-viewing-this-malicious-ad-will-infect-your-computer-with-ransomware/

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