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Forbes Asks Readers to Turn Off Ad Blockers, Then Immediately Serves Them Pop-under Malware

Accepted submission by xpda http://xpda.com at 2016-01-10 04:11:08
Security

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 [engadget.com], 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 [engadget.com].

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


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