The SDMB is serving up malware again

Sorry. Please cancel this post.

All you have to do to find your version is hit “Help” in the menu bar, then click on “About Internet Explorer”. The window that comes up will have the version number on it.

Joanie, Shakes is asking about his version of Internet Explorer, not Windows.

Oops. Sorry.

Jayjay, thank you for that clarification.

Av Security Suite is a very nasty virus. It’s no joke about it disabling all .exe files – can’t open any progams, not Malwarebytes, not Adaware, not even programs like Word or Textpad or anything. It brings up multiple messages and scan windows and slows everything down. I got it about a month ago, though I will be clear that I don’t think I got it here, as I was not on SDMB when I noticed it, but a random news site. And I am almost always logged in on SDMB anyways.

But, my gosh, it took 7 1/2 straight hours to clean off the virus (I am not a computer person, though) and it was only last week that I figured out how to get rid of the last remnants of its google search redirects and popups to results.gugle.com and google5 screens. It had changed the settings on my ROUTER! :smack:

I thought my computer was a goner for sure. That was one virus that has made me much more careful, and I admit even though I do not see ads here, hearing that SDMB’s advertisements are causing it does give me pause – I don’t want to deal with that virus ever again. I just want people who have not had it to understand that it is a monster, especially for those who are not computer virus literate. It is not simply “run Malwarebytes once” and reboot variety.

How about the idea of getting rid of all ads temporarily, and then let one ad source back in, then another? Like a food allergy elimination test.

Thanks.

I’m using IE8.

Note to the board staff:

Every time I think about sponsoring, more crap like this comes up. And, yes, I understand that ads will cease to affect me personally if I sponsor, but it’s a principle thing.

I’m on a Mac laptop (using a recent version of Safari) and I’m also getting interesting “log-in” requests. Once I log-in to th Dope in order tp post and hit the reply button, I get a dialog box (the kind you usually see programmed with .htaccess) that says I have to log-in to access this page. The log-in dialog box, has the URL tap.rubiconproject.com:80. I can not continue surfing the Dope until I cancel the dialog box.

Not sure if you need this info, but I am in Toronto, Canada.

Hmmm. I have been getting the “login to tap.rubiconproject.com” dialog also, and I am a paid member, and not suppose to get any advertising. I thought is was related to another window I had open, but now I am not so sure.

Windows 7, IE8

Can anybody explain why the hell I am getting this stuff popping up on my computer?

tap.rubiconproject.com”. Vista, using the Opera browser.

There is a separate thread for the rubicon malware:

Question – is anyone using an adblocker getting it?

I’m a Charter Member but also have some version of AdBlockPlus installed in Firefox 3.6.3 (and in the process of upgrading to 3.6.4) and I haven’t seen any popups or ads of any sort in a long time, certainly not anything I can associate with the SDMB.
ETA: AdBlockPlus 1.1.3. I need to do updates!

That’s why I was asking – I use AdBlock Plus as well, and I haven’t seen anything at all. That might be the solution, people. Well, at least for the time being. (Being that the mods don’t like us mentioning that kind of thing)

If I have to download adblockers to stop this type of thing, can I have my membership fee back please? Thats kinda why I paid the thing.

Hey, it’s not up to me! (Although I certainly reccomend them – it’s nice not to have constant pop-ups all over the internet)

They might, but it might well be irrelevant.

That likely won’t solve the problem.

This is a pretty good breakdown of how these things happen, inspired by a recent outbreak of scareware advertising on LiveJournal. I specifically linked to the second page of comments because of the third comment down which talks about how these ads get onto the big named ad networks to begin with.

Long story short: so long as a site has advertising, it cannot be trusted to be a safe site, because the internet advertising model is broken. It cannot ever be assumed to not be populated with ads that have malicious content and intent. And while individual users can protect themselves, by memberships that eliminate ads and use of Adblock, NoScript and their brethren, there comes a point where you must consider the impact when your words (posts) are the attraction for non-savvy people (who don’t have/know about things like Adblock) who aren’t members and therefore don’t have that protection, to come to a site where their computers are being put at risk.

That’s stupid. If every site that uses ads is a problem, that takes out nearly all of the Internet. Very few sites have any other way to pay upkeep costs.

At some point, if the net is as bad as you say, it becomes incumbent on the user to properly protect themselves. You can’t expect the adbrokers to eliminate the problem unless you deprive them completely of their money, and you can’t completely avoid Internet advertising otherwise.

Also, I very much suspect that this many problems can’t happen on accident. I understand that it is possible to specifically target the SDMB with your ads if you know how. At least one of the offshoot boards does it already.

That’s why I specifically said: the model is broken. Bad faith dealers know that they have a wide open exploit with which to use the sheer size of Google Ads and Doubleclick to insulate themselves from their bad behavior.

Using a smaller, more selective ad server is the first step to security. But they don’t pay as well, and aren’t well known. So sites go with Google and Doubleclick, and their users pay the cost.

After the advice I was given in a PM by ZipperJJ in this thread, my problems with Rubicon seem to have ceased. Is it okay to share that advice here, if the thread itself doesn’t give enough of a clue?