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Google’s AdSense system became
very popular recently, with many web sites and blogs making fortunes from
advertisement. But it seems that hackers asked themselves why not hijacking the
ads Google places on web pages and thus, depriving the huge Internet company of
revenue and causing potential problems for end users.
Recently, the Romanian security
company BitDefender warned about the existence of a new Trojan virus that
replaces Google’s text ads with ads from a different provider. Practically, the
Trojan horse modifies end users’ infected computers’ hosts file to replace Google’s
ads with their own ones; Google may be reportedly powerless to stop this
attack, as it involves the modification of an the internal hosts file, which is
used to match domain names of Web sites with IP addresses.
This is the second security
warning related to Google’s products being a target for worms and Trojans this
week. Only a few days ago, Aviv Raff, a security expert, claimed that an
attacker could download malicious files or launch a phising attack by simply
spoofing the origin of Google Toolbar’s button.
“This is a serious situation that
damages users and Webmasters alike. Users are affected because the
advertisements and/or the linked sites may contain malicious code. Webmasters
are affected because the Trojan takes away viewers and thus a possible money
source from their Web sites,” BitDefender’s virus analyst Attila Balazs said
about the recently discovered Google text ads Trojan.
So, although BitDefender
described this Trojan as a low risk worm, it could really harm Google’s highly
popular AdSense business.
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