KSL.com in Salt Lake City Utah having infectious moment
According to KSL, a virus on their website was trying to get user credit card information. The virus came from an ad on the site.
A similar virus infected a newspaper in Minneapolis. Newspaper delivers virus to its readers.
In Salt Lake City, the TV station started getting calls from customers and IT managers on Wednesday and Thursday. Some State of Utah government sites blocked KSL.com when they discovered the virus.
The station is owned by Deseret Digital Media who assured users they had isolated the virus source. Apparently it was hidden in the 3rd party advertisement.
“First of all, we apologize,” Clark Gilbert station CEO said. “[Users] should know we’re taking every precaution we can to protect the site.”
If you were hit, you would have seen a pop-up ad for an antivirus software on your screen. Clicking on it asks you for your credit card number.
General Manager of KSL.com Brett Atkinson said, “It’s definitely something that’s coming through not our local advertisers, but some of the third parties that we work with that do send advertisers to us.”
“Unfortunately, it got through their filters and attacked us. We found the source of that and have been able to pause it, but it’s something we have to watch all the time just to be safe,” Gilbert said.
James Smith João Pessoa, Brazil
“we’re taking every precaution ” Exactly what precautions were they taking? Waiting for user complaints? With the sophisticated virus protection available to day and the responsibility of commercial sites like the station’s to test third-party ads, there is no reason for this to happen other than gross negligence.
I would expect lawsuits from this, and rightly so.