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back to article CryptoWall! crooks! 'turn! to! Yahoo! ads! to! spread! ransomware!'

Crooks are using Yahoo!'s advertising network to infect PCs with the CryptoWall ransomware, it's claimed. Windows software nasty CryptoWall encrypts a victim's files using an OpenSSL-generated key pair before demanding a ransom to decrypt the data. It communicates with its masters using RC4-encrypted messages to command …

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  1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    servers hidden in the Tor network, eh ?

    It feels inevitable that the growing complexity of the communication tools that we have (not to mention those we will get) is going to become a nightmare to secure without destroying their usefulness.

    0 0 Reply
  2. Lost In Clouds of Data
    Headmaster

    And this is why...

    ...I always use ad blocking extensions etc. on all my browsers. It's not that I don't understand the need for advertising to help pay for the sites, it's just that one click on one bad ad can lead to an absolute world of hurt that I'm not willing to expose myself, or my PC's to.

    The advertising industry needs to come together and decide just how they're going to keep this clean and free of malware etc - and if that means coming up with a whole new controlled system working with sites and browser authors then so be it.

    They created this problem, now they need to fix it. Until then, AdBlock stays firmly installed on my Chrome's.

    5 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Facepalm

      Re: And this is why...

      "....Until then, AdBlock stays firmly installed on my Chrome's.!"

      Oh the irony, blocking ad's whilst using an advertising agencies software.

      1 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: And this is why...

        "Oh the irony, blocking ad's whilst using an advertising agencies software."

        It's like stealing from Google. There's an ethical conundrum - based on Google performance on copyright, media-owner payments, etc etc it seems OK to steal from them, on the other hand taken to the extreme in a Google free world we'd be choosing between WindowsPhone and Apple for mobile devices, and having to use Yahoo for search.

        There would appear to be no right answer, so keep stealin'

        1 0 Reply
  3. Crazy Operations Guy

    And crap like this is why I've been working on a module for Squid to block all '.swf' files from entering my network and a second module to scan all other files to drop files containing JavaScript/macros/etc. in files that otherwise shouldn't contain code (JPGs, PDFs, Word Documents, etc).

    1 0 Reply
  4. Cipher
    Coat

    No troubles when using...

    Elinks browser.

    Just saying...

    1 0 Reply
  5. td97402

    Where there's money to be made...

    It is easy to wink, nod, and look the other way.

    This is Yahoo's fault, and the fault of the other advertising networks as well. They apparently sell ad space on auto-pilot with no screening. Anyone recall yahoo.co.uk giving folks a virus from their home page back on New Year's day?

    0 0 Reply
  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is Yahoo! still a thing?

    Haven't used it since Ask Jeeves days

    1 0 Reply

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