UPDATE: The Issue Has Been Resolved – IOTW Report

UPDATE: The Issue Has Been Resolved

An advertiser has installed a script into our code to spoof that you have a malware problem. You don’t. Your computer is in no danger. We’ll find the script and kill it.

We are on top of the issue. It will be resolved.

Thank you for your patience.

66 Comments on UPDATE: The Issue Has Been Resolved

  1. From the good guys—–>

    Clicking on the ad or calling the # is a bad idea. They use multiple entry and exit windows to lock the user on that page and make the window difficult to close, which further deceives the user into thinking they have malware. They don’t. So long as users don’t click on the “ad” or call the phone # all is typically fine especially if they have an AV program installed.

  2. Hey Fur. Those thingees that jump in and send me to the app/game store just started up again tonight. Is this what you’re talking about??
    I’m on an iPhone so I don’t use any blocking except StartPage, which I’ve always used. ???

  3. I don’t like that you can’t click out of it. It freezes everything, and then the voice starts telling you to call that number… or else! You have to close your browser. There’s nothing else you can do.

  4. Is this about that Chromium Browser? (Not Chrome but a fake.) Malwarebytes Anti Malware just ripped out 154 PUPs of that mess out of my PC. Have no idea how I got it. (I’m clean. No pr0n.) And Flash Player users on FF need to update right now.

  5. I’m behind a couple heavy duty firewalls (after losing my C-drive to a web attack), and the settings are mostly made globally; it’s damn hard to obtain separate settings for different websites.
    So some of the ads are likely being blocked on my end. And because of that, I try to donate to iOTWreport on a monthly basis. I hope others who don’t see the ads are doing likewise, to insure the future of this great website.

  6. I use Ad Blocker, but I turn it off for iotw. I only use it on sites where the ads are obnoxiously intensive. Other than that, I get a kick out of the adware crap…
    “WARNING! WE FOUND MALWARE.exe on your computer! Click here to have it removed…”

    Ha!.. I’ve been running Linux since 2003.

  7. This happened to me a couple of times recently while browsing IOTWR. All I do is bring up Task Manager, select the troublemaker task, and click “End task”. Problem solved.

    Until the next occurrence, anyway…

    🙂

  8. Once you find the advertiser who is doing this, I would hope they will be banned from your site. I think this sort of thing will ultimately cost more than the ad revenue is worth, by driving viewers away.

    IMHO, that is.

  9. I don’t think people are understanding what this is all about.
    iOTWreport does not make one dime on these ads. This is a hacking of the site. This is illegal activity. This was inserted into our code illegally and maliciously.
    We lose money, big money, every time this happens.
    We lose traffic (understandably) which effects our good advertisers, and we pay through the ass to have the problem fixed.
    It pains me to think that people feel I’m putting this crap on the site to turn a buck.
    The opposite is true.
    I pay to get it off the site.

    This is an ongoing battle, one that is almost daily, to keep these types of ads off the site.

    Another thing I don’t think people understand is that GOOGLE does not care one whit about this problem because THEY DO make money on this.

    The only ads that EVER are supposed to be on the site are Lanista (the banner, side bar and footer ad) and Ad Supply (2 pop UNDERS per day per IP address, and the floater ad in the lower right, and the ad you’ll see when you access comments.)
    That’s it.

    Every time you see any other type of ad it’s because the site has been attacked and I have to take hours, sometimes days, following up on it.

    I’m at the end of my rope, frankly.

  10. OK, that clarifies things. When you referred to a script that had been inserted by some bad advertisers, I thought you meant that one of your advertisers had slipped something into one of their ads that they weren’t supposed to. What it really meant is that some hackers somehow inserted a script illegally on your site. Got it now.

    🙂

  11. wow… i have never thought it was anything else but illegal action. and if anybody that comes here thinks otherwise….fuck them.

    your truth, integrity, and insight are above reproach…..along with your fellow contributor.

    these hackers need to go to the top of the 100 list (1,000)

    google is a communist plot to take over the world….i never (yes, never is a big word) but I never use google…..my search engine is duckduckgo.com…..they don’t track you

  12. The buttholes who pull this crap ought to be forced to listen to Ono’s Revolution #9 24×7 for the rest of their misbegotten nasty lives.

    Not that it does you much good, BFH, but you have my sympathy.

    Many thanks!

  13. I don’t mind Revolution #9 because it’s varied, eerie and kind of interesting. The one that’ll make hardened criminals squeal for mercy is, “Don’t Worry, Kyoko, Mummy’s Only Looking For A Hand In The Snow”.
    YouTube it… if you dare!

  14. OK, I can see that. I think it is painfully awful, but de gustibus non est disputandum.

    If you were the bad guy (heaven forbid!), you’d get that 1968 super hit Yummy Yummy Yummy (I’ve Got Love in my Tummy) recorded by Ohio Express. 24×7. Forever.

  15. It has not been resolved. There are still malicious outbounds happening.
    Lucianne and the Weasel disagree with me, but this is happening to all the “right wing” sites, including The Peoples Cube. for some reason Drudge is immune. I suspect he is wealthy enough to keep it from happening by hiring top notch IT.
    It is not happening on other sites that use the same advertisers you use.
    Another issue related to this is an inserted script that causes a memory hole rendering the site useless over time. That seems to be resolved at the moment.
    I can stroll over to Huffinglue or the Dirty Kossacks with no issues.
    Crap, as I am typing this, the memory hole started, interrupting my ability to type this post.
    Signing off before it is lost.

  16. It was a company called appnexus, delivered through another called pubmatic.
    This is also what is so malicious. They weave through various chains to make it difficult to find the culprit.
    It took us nearly 24 hours.
    I do want to say that it was Ad Supply who helped us.
    Those guys are fantastic.
    They had no reason whatsoever to listen to my cryin’, because they had nothing to do with it.
    Shout out to ADAM at Ad Supply.
    This guy is a mental superman and did us a real favor, a favor requested by MIKE at Ad Supply.
    They saved us.

  17. The real conspiracy (disparity is the proper word) is that lefty sites do not rely so much on traditional ad revenue to subsist. They seem to be funded by some behind the scenes angel.
    So, right-wing sites, like ours, become more vulnerable to living or dying by their ad revenue. We have an exploitable vulnerability.

    The other thing is, when some right-wing angel happens to surface to shower dough, they go to the least talented, the least compelling, the least interesting middle-of -the-road milquetoast nothing burgers to fund.

  18. I can’t stand java and flash.
    You can update and go to another site and something won’t work and they say you don’t have the latest version of flash or java.
    I JUST FRIGGIN UPDATEDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!

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