back to article Skype users were targeted by bad-ad pushing Angler crooks

Cybercrooks have been caught running booby-trapped ads on Skype to redirect users towards an Angler exploit kit trap. The tactic, part of a broader malvertising campaign, shows that users can be exposed to malicious ads pushing ransomware and other crud without even using a browser-based app, the most common exploit route. …

  1. PleebSmasher
    Dead Vulture

    Oh, that's lovely

    Remind me to download Adblock VoIP+ from the Microsoft Win10 Metro Skype App Store.

  2. Mage Silver badge
    Devil

    Idiot MS

    When eBay bought Skype the quality of SW went downhill.

    MS. OTH totally made it unusable on many laptops (100% CPU. Why? Something to do with not being able to disable camera? I don't know.)

    The UI has got worse. Ironically the Linux version is now better than Windows Desktop version, for a certain definition of better.

    The adverts in a product that for years never had adverts, for a company the size of MS that makes so much from bought products is OBSCENE GREED and was doomed to server malware. It will again. That's why I have noscript in the browser, it's only incidental that it blocks adverts.

    MS have totally lost the plot.

    1. Mark 85

      Re: Idiot MS

      If the reports are true (and they seem to be) then Win10 is headed into that same cesspool only now it will be the OS serving the ads. Be afraid, be very afraid.

      1. fajensen

        Re: Idiot MS

        That's kind of the whole idea behind the flashing tiles interface, is it not? In the future every time one wants to run an app and click on a it's tile, one first have to watch some shitty commercial.

    2. fajensen

      Re: Idiot MS

      Yep ... and they even have those extra shitty / spammy ads on Skype ("Memory Optimizer" and the "Missing Drivers", amongst others) that everyone else stopped serving in ... oh ... early 2000's or so.

  3. a_yank_lurker

    That will be disaster, if true, too many users will blindly trust something from the OS even if they do not blinding trust spam or online ads. And it is too easy for anyone to click open spam or click on a dodgy ad by accident.

  4. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    Internet rule #???* : Anything can be a malware vector.

    *Any suggestions? I know that #34 is already taken. Who is in charge of numbering anyway?

    1. BongoJoe

      Me </hands up>

      Lately I have been annoying people with my Welsh Encoded Roman numbering system. It tends to keep them quiet as they try to work out why the Roman numerals for five (V) have been replaced by IW and X has been replaced by WI.

      LL tends to be a bone of contention though because is it two Ls or L+1?

      It's great fun. But seriously, I do release my software versions using the Welsh alphabet because, well, why not? Most of my users have come to like it which does surprise me somewhat.

      edit: I also seem to have become somewhat unemployable of late. I can't imagine why...

      1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

        > Welsh Encoded Roman numbering

        For extra points, migrate to using a non-Western font (Thai? Old Sanskrit? Ancient Hebrew?)..

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