We’ve all been there….somebody posts a curiously intriguing article with a catchy title. You go to the site, and if you can navigate through ads and popups to actually read the story you came for, you feel you deserve a medal. Now, there’s more than just the inconvenience of ads to be worried about, and it’s even affecting popular, reputable websites.
Many of you have installed an ad-blocker to your internet browser (like AdblockPlus) to stop or limit annoying popups and redirects that affect your ability to view the content you want on the web. Most websites need the revenue they receive from advertisers, and some are requesting that you disable your adblocker in order to view the article or content on their site (to ensure they get paid by advertisers). The popular website Forbes.com recently did this, and as soon as you disabled it, you would be prompted to “download a Java update” that looked suspiciously legit- but ended up installing spyware on their victim computers. How can this happen? You don’t even need to click on advertisements for them them to infect your computer, and spammers are hacking the third-party ad brokers who manage the advertisements to these well-respected websites, which cause these ads to be shown. ExtremeTech has a detailed article on the topic, for more information: http://www.extremetech.com/internet/220696-forbes-forces-readers-to-turn-off-ad-blockers-promptly-serves-malware
How do you protect yourself? We’ve always recommended that our customers use a reputable ad-blocker (like https://adblockplus.org/) on your Internet Explorer, Chrome, or Firefox browser, regardless if you’re on a Mac or PC. They even have a mobile version of the browser you can download for your phone. Make sure you use it (and enable the popup blocker in your browser as well) to help ensure a safer browsing experience. If you’re asked to disable the blocker to continue to their content….DON’T….and instead search for another source for the information (try typing in the same topic at news.google.com). If you’re reading this article a little too late, and already are victim to the spyware, don’t hesitate to call Canyonero and we’ll get you back up and running quickly!
