Malicious Adverts Alert

[Idris]

There seem to be some infected adverts doing the rounds on Ebay and other sites at the moment. Although, as far as I can see, they do not actually infect your PC (certainly, having checked on the Internet, no one has been able to detect a downloaded virus or malware program), they do force a normally safe webpage to redirect to a malware site. This appears to be mainly a spoof Java update request, although i have had one for some kind of video or graphics driver.
If you do get one of these redirections, I have found that using the backpage button normally works, although sometimes the bogus page simply reloads (presumably because the infected advert is still there). In that case, simply close and then reopen the page.
It should also be noted that this attack appears to be restricted to the UK (presumably because of the way that the selection of the advertisements to embed is engineered), but that’s not to say that something similar couldn’t happen overseas, so be warned!
For the technically minded, a good analysis of what happened on another website is given here.

[kwakers]

Thank You Idris for this information. I am on U.K. E Bay quite a bit, but I never allow any updates anywhere, so maybe the unskilled 'Caveman' may not have to replace a computer again this year as I did in September/October of last year.
All we U.S. E Bay users had been forced to change our Passwords for E Bay use 3 weeks ago because of a massive information breach, has it been the same in Europe and the U.K., as well as for everyone else worldwide? kwakers

[Idris]

All we U.S. E Bay users had been forced to change our Passwords for E Bay use 3 weeks ago because of a massive information breach, has it been the same in Europe and the U.K., as well as for everyone else worldwide? kwakers

I think Ebay's password update call has been Worldwide.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

I am getting similar advert/Java update pages opening automatically when the laptop is idle, like when I have just logged out of this forum. I have 'Avast' free trial net security and it says my PC is good and clean, so, so far those 'Java' based pages seem un-troublesome.

GHOSTHUNTER.

[Idris]

I've been using Google Chrome for a while now (faster than Internet Explorer and also less heavy on resources) so, based on that article, I've now installed AdBlock and it's so far, so good.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

I have also been using Google Chrome, but recently it has changed out of all recognition and dressed-up with bloody 'Yahoo' rubbish all over it and it seems I will not be able to go back to the old style (with a big Google above the typing box), why can't they leave things alone, there was nothing wrong with it!!!

Ghosty.

[Tinman]

I am getting similar advert/Java update pages opening automatically when the laptop is idle, like when I have just logged out of this forum. I have 'Avast' free trial net security and it says my PC is good and clean, so, so far those 'Java' based pages seem un-troublesome.

GHOSTHUNTER.

Try resetting to an earlier date.

[GHOSTHUNTER]

"Try resetting to an earlier date"

Thank's "Tinman" but the laptop has only recently had a new Harddrive fitted and 'Windows' re-installed, so it would not go back very far at the moment and last night I had to down load some different net security software, had a few problems then the thing went a bit silly and I was told by it that I had to reactivate 'Windows', but could not use any of the three activation options available and it insisted it had to be today (Monday 2nd June), or fear being locked out of using the damm thing!

I had to hack my own laptop just to activate 'Windows' without the use of a 'Product Key' and I will have to do it again in less than 30 days to keep using my computer!!!

Ghosty.

[Idris]

Blocking the adverts seems to have resolved the problem (and it's made page loading even faster!).