MySpace Banner Ad Spreads Spyware

Millions of visitors to Myspace.com and other web sites have been infected with spyware by a banner advertisement according to iDefense, a Verisign company.

iDefense, an Internet security company owned by Verisign, said the spyware infects unpatched versions of Windows using a security flaw in the way the operating system and Microsoft Internet Explorer open Windows Metafile images, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

The banner ad, for DeckOutYourDeck.com, loads a Trojan horse program onto unpatched systems that installs adware of the PurityScan/ClickSpring family, said Michael La Pilla, an iDefense ‘malcode’ analyst. He said the adware tracks the user`s Internet usage and causes the infected system to be flooded with pop-up ads.

The installation program contacts a Russian-language server in Turkey. Over a million computers have been affected. via M&C Tech