Hackers hit BBC, MSN, AOL, New York Times, and host of others with fake adverts

Just this week we were posting about the rise of ransomware, and today the news agencies are reporting of a malicious attack that has infected users with ransomware when hackers were able to take control of banner adverts that linked to malicious software.

The hackers managed to gain control of a domain that the former owners didn’t renew, meaning that legitimate ad agencies were inadvertently displaying adverts that linked to a separate page that then tried to put ransomware on to their computers.

Through the attack, hackers were able to gain control of a persons computer when they clicked on, what they presumed, was a legitimate advert. With the list of sites that displayed the rogue ads including big names like BBC, AOL, and the New York Times, it’s easy to see how victims would never have questioned the legitimacy of where the ad was taking them to.

This is another in a long line of attacks as ransomware continues to hit big name sites, allowing criminals to extort money out of victims.

And the amounts we’re talking about here are in the millions.

Many businesses pay the ransoms because the time it can take for the issue to be resolved without paying the ransoms can easily cost them more money in downtime. Essentially a business can be locked out of their own systems, which effectively cripples them until they’re back up and running.

Looking Back; the data breaches defining history – British Gas

Ransomware on the Rise