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posted by cmn32480 on Sunday January 10 2016, @02:54PM   Printer-friendly
from the those-bastards dept.

The Forbes 30 Under 30 list came out this week and it featured a prominent security researcher. Other researchers were pleased to see one of their own getting positive attention, and visited the site in droves to view the list.

On arrival, like a growing number of websites, Forbes asked readers to turn off ad blockers in order to view the article. After doing so, visitors were immediately served with pop-under malware, primed to infect their computers, and likely silently steal passwords, personal data and banking information. Or, as is popular worldwide with these malware "exploit kits," lock up their hard drives in exchange for Bitcoin ransom. The exploit used was a version of hackenfreude.

Forbes has recently taken some flack from Soylent News readers for its heavy-handed approach to ad blockers.


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by BK on Sunday January 10 2016, @06:06PM

    by BK (4868) on Sunday January 10 2016, @06:06PM (#287678)

    What's really needed here is civil liability. If Forbes had to pay to clean this mess up on every impacted system, they'd pay more attention to what they did and how.

    --
    ...but you HAVE heard of me.
    Starting Score:    1  point
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    Total Score:   5