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Google and Online Advertising is a Virus
pubcrawler
Banned
Cisco found in its 2013 Annual Security report, released Jan. 30. For example, users clicking on online advertisements were 182 times more likely to wind up getting infected with malware than if they'd surfed over to an adult content site, Cisco said.
The highest concentration of online security targets do not target pornography, pharmaceutical, or gambling sites as much as they affect legitimate sites such as search engines, online retailers, and social media. Users are more 21 times more likely to get hit with malware from online shopping sites and 27 more times likely with a search engine than if they'd gone to a counterfeit software site, according to Cisco.
2,577 percent growth in Android-based malware over the past year.
[source: http://www.securityweek.com/easier-get-infected-malware-good-sites-shady-sites-cisco-says ]
Read the security report from Cisco here:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/vpndevc/2013-annual-security-report.pdf
Comments
ads == malware is and has always been common knowledge
That's why @gubbyte I've been advocating blocking ads and more importantly, disabling Javascript.
Vast majority of exploits get in via the rampant abuse of Javascript.
Ads are necessary evils of the internet.Without it 90% internet will die.Best solution is to ad blocker plugins to the browser
90% of the internet is going to die because of ads.
When security is so broken and ads are such a culprit, people will inevitably tire of expensive and destructive actions by unscrupulous snake oil ad salesmen.
It is a reminder to everyone who basis their web business on generating income from unrelated ads to snap to reality and come up with a viable business model.
All we really need is for Windows to die. You can make malware and viruses for anything, but it is and apparently always will be harder to make significant ones for unix based operating systems. Market has an effect, but so does good OS security. We need those who profit on OS sales to be more involved instead of leaving it to an industry that, were it truly effective, would put itself out of business. An anti-virus is like a rape whistle (aka product designed to reduce it's own sales). They don't really want it to work unless they hate eating.
As much I use to hate Windows @jarland, I actually now hope it thrives.
This Linux is free coupled with big corporation that makes zero off an OS but does so via ads or selling overpriced handsets and backroom subsidies, well, that's no better.
Windows users should demand better security and companies should have filled the need eons ago. Still a market to make a mint from.
Secure Windows would do just fine. Don't believe there is a direct relationship with insecurity = higher profits to MS. But I could be looking at the puzzle wrong.
I'm thinking more of the anti-virus industry.
Agree about the anti-virus industry @jarland.
Those fools can/will always create another vacuum to fill though.
Can you tell me what is the viable business model for LowEndTalk then? And for Google?
I'm curious... because the only way I could see a viable business model for LowEndBox/LowEndTalk is to make the provider pay them for.. ad. Much worst ad too because you don't actually know it's an ad and you actually think it's a great offer but in fact they are paying them to show this offer to you.
Samething for Google. We know the result with adword are ad, what happen if they stop doing ad? How could they still make money?
Also have you never learnt that correlation doesn't mean causation? Did you ever click on an ad? Have you ever got a virus? I don't click ad, I don't get virus. Who will click on ad? Your grandma, yeah the same person who also have 42 toolbars on IE 6. I think this is the reason why there's a relation between clicking on ad and getting a virus. It's because naive people who click on these ad will also download this super cool application that give you an amazing selection of smiley to put on the next spam you will send to your family.
You also hate ad but in the sametime you give a huge ad to Cisco. How? By showing their huge marketing campaign that's made to sell you a device with AMAZING SECURITY feature (and you even trust their ad). But still you block ad that help LowEndTalk...
Malicious generic viagra advertising is not legitimate reputable company advertising
@dwild, I don't block ads on sites I support. However, the ads here, they aren't in house and served by an ad crap network. So I make an exception to let the damn things through.
Ironically, I find the ads placed in the offers section appropriate and much better than those paid graphic ads. Perhaps LEB/LET should charge for ad postings?
If my grandmother, who is long dead is clicking on ads we clearly know it is fraud
Now if the elderly are the people clicking on the ads, then there is little to no revenue for most sites as they don't specialize in geriatric services, adult diapers, bingo and walkers.
As for Google, they can't survive without ads? Probably. They sure aren't trying to make money otherwise though. In the process they are using ad derived income to devalue and destroy otherwise paid and viable industries. That shouldn't be allowed by law.
As for Cisco, a report / study that is an ad. Sure it is. But they actually are providing some useful information in hopes of me being a qualified lead that will buy. Far better than showing me a sexy graphic ad of some fufu to trick to click.
Like I always say about advertising, I want to see what I am interested in and what I already buy or a suitable or better alternative. Show me an ad that saves me $5 every week. Probably 20 ways to accomplish that.
We should also stop selling car because some of them contains people who try to give "free candy" to your kid. Sometime education is a better solution than banishment.
I'm not saying it's elderly people who click. I say it's naive people who click. People who don't actually understand the difference between legit application and virus.
I still don't see any proposition? What would be a viable business model for a search engine? An informative forum?
Wikipedia is a huge information database, they get donation from HUGE corporation, from a TON of people in the community and still they have trouble getting enough...
You would expect every website to struggle as much as Wikipedia to pay the rent? You only want huge corporation like Microsoft to give you a search engine? You only want top 10 website to be able to survive?
Wikipedia hasn't struggled very much. Big cash surplus of $9 million it looks like:
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=11212
Wikipedia has plenty of ways to make money.
Just ask encyclopedia publisher who they destroyed. Inevitably, data in mass has a data to sell in collections, subscriptions, etc.
Naive people who click on ads for free smilies probably aren't the folks making many major purchases. Depending on the morons to sustain the society is like forgoing industrial production and opening casinos and opium dens instead.
Search engines should be of the public interest. They should be non profits, not the Wikipedia.
If I use Google now, every other query is eHow, Wikipedia and a limited number of other companies hogging up everything. Search use to be more spread around and less concentrated on big brands and bad results.
talk about misleading title
Really? I read recently about a debian hack that gives the remote user root.
LMAO, not this again. Why? Why should they be non-profits? They don't perform any special function at all, and anyone can create them, no restrictions at all.
You're free to create your own non-profit search engine, I'll even post about it on google+ if you do.
@jarland Microsoft is involved, they make Microsoft Security Essentials. I don't personally use it, but I've heard only good things.
There's nothing inherently insecure about Windows, the people who it's an insecure OS is delusional. Linux is immune to probably 90% of the 'exploits' and 'tricks' because the percentage of people using it as a desktop OS is quite small, therefore it's targeted a lot less. I don't think many of the *nix servers out there are running random applications from shady sites or even running web browsers doing shady things. Another apples to orange comparison for arguing that windows is insecure.
Congratulations, yet another guy with the 'let's cut off the head because it hurts' solution.
No offense, but I'd stop wasting time with these if I were you.