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Visitors to the New York Times website over the weekend got an unwelcome surprise in the form of malicious ads serving scareware.  The ads instigated a browser hijack and redirect visitors to best-antivirus03.com, a rogue site serving up fake anti-virus software.  The Times is aware of the issue and posted a note to warn its readers:

Some NYTimes.com readers have seen a pop-up box warning them about a virus and directing them to a site that claims to offer antivirus software. We believe this was generated by an unauthorized advertisement and are working to prevent the problem from recurring. If you see such a warning, we suggest that you not click on it. Instead, quit and restart your Web browser.

It is not yet clear how the malicious ads ended up on the site, but it’s likely it was either unwittingly served by one of the ad networks the Times uses (it’s a fairly common scammer technique to pose as a legit advertiser, join an ad network and then poison it with a rogue ad which it will then serve to all the other sites in its network.).  Aside from the warning it posted, the Times had had no comment about the matter.

It’s becoming more and more common for scammers and hackers to find ways to use legit websites to deliver their wares.  Poisoned ads and SQL injection attacks are the most used ways to do so.  If you find yourself redirected to a rogue anti-virus site, ignore all the dire sounding warnings saying you’ve been infected and don’t click on anything!  Instead, hit CTRL-ALT-DEL to bring up Task Manager and close your browser.  This will keep the site from downloading its payload to your computer.  Always keep your anti-virus and spyware programs active and up to date as well!

Read [CNet]