Google AdSense Trojan
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 2nd Jan 2006 14:06 UTC, submitted by BCM
Google A new, deceptive trojan horse program has surfaced. The program is engineered to produce fake Google ads that are formatted to look like legitimate ones. Since the Trojan Horse makes the deceptive ads look like normal Google ads, the program was nearly impossible to detect by the general public. However, Raoul Bangera, discovered the bogus program and contacted the Google AdSense team. Bangera emailed the team a number of cases, including various screenshots, log files of an infected computer and system files as proof. The AdSense team validated the news saying, "We can confirm from the screenshots that these are fake Google ads, formatted to look like legitimate ads. We agree that this phenomenon is likely the result of malicious software installed on your computer."
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Wow
by evangs on Mon 2nd Jan 2006 17:03 UTC
evangs
Member since:
2005-07-07

So the only way he was alerted to this trojan, was the fact that the ads had nothing to do with the content of the pace he was looking at. Imagine if the trojan writers had tweaked the trojan to implement a similar AdSense to Google's.

Reply Score: 1

RE: Wow
by Beryllium on Mon 2nd Jan 2006 21:41 UTC in reply to "Wow"
Beryllium Member since:
2005-07-08

Well, in that case, google might've hired them. However, they've proven themselves to be mere nitwits, so no google jobs for them!

Reply Score: 1

Platform?
by MikeGA on Mon 2nd Jan 2006 23:03 UTC
MikeGA
Member since:
2005-07-22

The article doesn't actually say, but can I assume this is a Windows only issue? And if so, which versions.

Also, I'm slightly confused from the article - is it Internet Explorer only, or Firefox as well, maybe even all Windows browsers in general?

Reply Score: 1

RE: Platform?
by happycamper on Tue 3rd Jan 2006 04:40 UTC in reply to "Platform?"
happycamper Member since:
2006-01-01

I would assume it would only affect the Windows platform since alomost of this kind of stuff are made for windows like worms,virus,etc.

Reply Score: 1

RE: Platform?
by raver31 on Tue 3rd Jan 2006 09:52 UTC in reply to "Platform?"
raver31 Member since:
2005-07-06

The Trojan Horse apparently downloads itself onto an unsuspecting computer through a web page

Of course it is Windows only if it does it like that.

And everyone moans that software is harder to install under Linux, now you know why.

Reply Score: 1

Damn...
by 1c3d0g on Tue 3rd Jan 2006 14:15 UTC
1c3d0g
Member since:
2005-07-06

...this is troubling, to say the least. ;) I've always advocated on blocking ads in the first place, and this is one more reason to install AdBlock on your favorite browser. Just do it, or regret it later...your choice.

AdBlock:
http://adblock.mozdev.org/

AdBlock Plus:
http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=774

Reply Score: 1

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