Security firm Malwarebytes says a campaign of malware hidden inside online ads which hit search engine Yahoo earlier this year has now also appeared on adult websites.<\/p>\n
The advertising, apparently for a service called Sex Messenger, also contained tools for identifying whether the user was genuine rather than a bot.<\/p>\n
It appeared on porn site xhamster, one of the world’s most visited domains.<\/p>\n
However the firm said porn sites are no more dangerous than mainstream ones.<\/p>\n
The ad has now been removed.<\/p>\n
The malware, which also made use of the security of cloud-based platforms to hide what it was doing, worked by directing the user to a fraudulent page once it had determined that they were running Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and had identified the device’s security settings.<\/p>\n
So-called “malvertising” often installs ransomware on to a victim’s machine. It loads a page containing false accusations of criminal activity and instructions for paying a fine.<\/p>\n
“These efforts ensure that only real users will get to see the exploit kit landing page therefore excluding honeypots and security researchers alike,” wrote Malwarebytes security consultant Jerome Segura in a blog post.<\/p>\n
Although in this case the ad was popping up so often that researchers were able to study it after all.<\/p>\n
Xhamster is currently ranked the 71st most visited website in the world by web analytics firm Alexa and attracts hundreds of millions of monthly users.<\/p>\n
But the online porn industry does invest in security, Mr Segura added.<\/p>\n
“There’s this idea that adult sites are more dangerous to visit than ‘regular’ sites,” he told Tech Week Europe.<\/p>\n
“I don’t believe it’s entirely true especially for the top sites because they do dedicate a lot of resources to fighting fraud and malware.<\/p>\n
“Based on what we have seen in the past months as far as malvertising goes, we have seen just as many top mainstream publishers as pornographic ones.”<\/p>\n
The firm that distributed the ad has now taken it down.
\n–
\nBy:BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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