Fergie's Tech Blog

Security Fix: When Ads Go Bad

Brian Krebs writes on Security Fix:

A long-time trusted source recently alerted me that some inappropriate advertisements were running on Neopets.com, a Web site full of addictive Macromedia Flash games aimed at pre-teens. Surprisingly, the curators of Neopets.com -- major media conglomerate Viacom -- are disavowing responsibility for the racy ads, saying they did not exist on their network and instead were the result of adware or spyware on my source's computer.

Included is a screenshot taken of one of the multiple ads I found on the site, which linked back to Internet dating site True.com. A Neopets.com spokesperson said the ads could not have possibly have been served through its site, and that the ads must have been displayed by malicious software.

More here.

Note: If you read the remainder of this article, you'll notice that everyone involved claims to not be responsible, and most likely, the Bad Guys are somehow managing to poison the advertisemnet supply-chain since there is so little quality control in this area. -ferg

Image source: Brian Krebs/Security Fix/The Washington Post

posted by Fergie @ 3/10/2008 10:17:00 AM