Online Ads Could Create 'Million Browser Botnet'

[Guest]

Two researchers at Black Hat showed how an online ad network could be used to create a giant botnet – no hacking required.

Online Ads Could Create 'Million Browser Botnet' : Read more

 

[curiosul]

Adblock anyone?

 

[matter37]

Wow. I do use adblock for the sites I actively go to and trust. Like tomshardware or youtube, since advertisements pay for them. I did not realize such a thing on this scale was possible.

 

[Onus]

Where unwelcome ads are involved. nefarious intent may be assumed. After all, they are intended to separate people from their money, even when they were not interesting in buying or shopping for anything.

 

[edogawa]

Scary to think about that. So happy we have things like AdBlocker.

 

[kenwheeler77]

Bluecoat K9 anyone?

 

[none12345]

This is why i adblock and noscript everything.

 

[techguy911]

I clean at least 5 systems a day 100% of malware comes from ads that is main reason why people use adblock what they are talking about in this article is already happening with ZBOT and it's variants.
99% of all machines are infected with conduit my personal machines stay clean i use adblock plus and noscript year later after scanning not one malware or rootkit.

 

[techguy911]

I clean at least 5 systems a day 100% of malware comes from ads that is main reason why people use adblock what they are talking about in this article is already happening with ZBOT and it's variants.
99% of all machines are infected with conduit my personal machines stay clean i use adblock plus and noscript year later after scanning not one malware or rootkit.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

So, I guess the fact that my browser has filters that basically don't bother sending data to a couple of dozen ad and tracking sites sort of defeats this?

However, I think that pumping out spam via JS might be a bit on the sensationalist side.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

The other thing is that these would only work while you left your browser open. As such, it's a lot less effective than botnets with computers available whenever they're idle - they have to actually have a page with a specific script open.