3 ms·
Remember when getting viruses required you to be on 2chan or sketchy free porn or font websites? Those were the days.
by Loughla 2y ago
Remember when getting viruses required you to be on 2chan or sketchy free porn or font websites? Those were the days.
- mathgeek 2y agoWhile these were the “obvious” high risk sites, running unknown executables from someone you “trust” has been an attack vector for as long as code has been shareable. It’s what is being referenced every time a film uses the “plug this into the server” trope for decades now.
- bagels 2y agoBecause of ad networks, you didn't even need to visit a disreputable part of the Internet. The virus was delivered via ads. The reason I won't internet without ad blockers.
- morkalork 2y agoDoes this happen anymore? I feel like if one had knowledge of javascript/image/whatever zero day exploit, there would be more profitable uses for it than blowing it spamming random people via an ad network. OP's example is a much lower hanging fruit, you don't need to have a fancy browser exploit if you can just trick someone into running your code. Just like all the cracked video games you can download that are loaded with viruses.
- bagels 2y agoReferring to happenings 20 years ago (to go along with the GP "remember when") edit: 15 years ago NY Times reporting on how they infected people's computers with malicious drive-by ads: https://archive.ph/ZNp5 https://archive.ph/ZNp5
- redwall_hp 2y agoI remember people opening emails with file.jpg.exe attachments and major ad networks distributing Flash banners that would infect a machine just from visiting sites as high profile as the New York Times.