Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Worm Boosts AdSense Traffic

According to FaceTime Security Labs a Yahoo Messenger worm will open up a browser and multiple iterations of expensive AdSense ads.

In a press release on PR Newswire, FaceTime says the w32.KMeth worm (which I couldn't find anyone else reporting) directs computers to a website and starts up several pages that includes ads for the keyword mesothelioma, a rare cancer that is also a premium keyword buy.

Now I would think that Google would be able to easily track the IP address of the host website and refuse to pay for the click fraud for ads delivered to these pages. However, it is nothing if not annoying. I would think that this story would have been picked up widely, so is the press release a virus too?

Posted By Jason Dowdell at 06:19 PM
Permanent Link: Worm Boosts AdSense Traffic | Comments (1)

(1) Comments on Worm Boosts AdSense Traffic

Sorry John- no press release virus, but good your skeptical.

Actually another firm had caught the payload i think, but not explored this worm and the monetary angle of the attack. That is what intrigued us.

We have full packet logs, video, etc, INCTRL reports on file- as we normally do. To release anything otherwise would irresponsible.

I have expounded on it here a bit:

http://www.revenews.com/wayneporter/

and you can also see more at http://www.vitalsecurity.org

and Slashdot for starters

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/03/2249259

Actually we have covered three recent strange worms Pipeline, HeartWorm.a and KMeth Worm...easily found in the press.

Thanks for commenting and skepticism is good. I wish it were a Rushkoff type of media virus...

regards,
Wayne Porter
Sr. Dir Special Reseach
MSFT Security MVP

Comments by Wayne Porter : Wednesday, October 04, 2006 at 12:49 PM

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