| Trojan Swaps Google Ads For Malware |
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| Written by Jared Maynard | |||
| Thursday, 20 December 2007 | |||
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" New Trojan software has been found picking the pockets of Google and its publishing partners, and potentially exposing Web surfers to more malware.
BitDefender, a software security company based in Bucharest, Romania, on Tuesday said that it had detected a new Trojan (Trojan.Qhost.WU) that replaces Google AdSense text ads with ads from a different, potentially malicious provider. "This is a serious situation that damages users and Webmasters alike," said Attila-Mihaly Balazs, a BitDefender virus analyst, in a statement. "Users are affected because the advertisements and/or the linked sites may contain malicious code, which is a very likely situation, given that they are promoted using malware in the first place. Webmasters are affected because the Trojan takes away viewers and thus a possible money source from their Web sites." Google said in an e-mailed statement that it is "committed to ensuring the safety and security of our users and our advertisers. We actively work to detect and remove sites that serve malware in both our ad network and in our search results. We have manual and automated processes in place to detect and enforce these policies. We have canceled customer accounts that display ads re-directing users to malicious sites or that advertise a product violating our software principles." Read More ► ~news.yahoo.com
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