Malware can be introduced to computers in a number of ways, and sometimes the user does not need to do anything except visit the website in which the malware is hidden. Of course most of the time these malware-ridden websites tend to be of the shady nature and one would never expect a more reputable website to have malware hidden in it, whether intentional or not, which is why safe to say many did not expect to have their computers hit with malware after visiting Yahoo’s website.
According to reports, it seems that researchers, Fox IT, have discovered malware hiding in the ads found on Yahoo’s website which were displayed at an estimated 300,000 times per hour, meaning that there is a very big chance that many users out there might have been infected. “But I don’t click on ads,” you claim? Well the researchers found that these Java-based ads don’t even have to be clicked to trigger the code, and that visiting the page was sufficient enough for an attack!
The good news is that Yahoo has already identified the malware and has since managed to eradicate it, and in a statement released by the company, “We recently identified an ad designed to spread malware to some of our users. We immediately removed it and will continue to monitor and block any ads being used for this activity.” It is unknown how many visitors this might have affected, but if you have been to Yahoo’s website recently, perhaps running a scan on your computer might be a good idea.