December 2007
BitDefender Detects New Trojan that Hijacks Google Text Advertisements; Cuts into Google Revenues
BUCHAREST, Romania December 18, 2007 BitDefender®, a global provider of award-winning antivirus software and data security solutions, announced today that BitDefender antivirus analysts have detected a new trojan, which hijacks Google text advertisements, replacing them with ads from a different provider. The threat, which is identified by BitDefender as Trojan.Qhost.WU, modifies the infected computers' Hosts file (a local storage for domain name / IP address mappings, which is consulted before domain name servers and is considered authoritative).
The modified file contains a line redirecting the host "page2.googlesyndication.com" which should point to an IP of the form 6x.xxx.xxx.xxx to a different address, of the form 9x.xxx.xxx.xxx, so that the infected machines' browsers read ads from server at the replacement address rather than from Google.
"This is a serious situation that damages users and webmasters alike," said Attila-Mihaly Balazs, a BitDefender virus analyst. Users are affected because the advertisements and/or the linked sites may contain malicious code, which is a very likely situation, given that they are promoted using malware in the first place. Webmasters are affected because the trojan takes away viewers and thus a possible money source from their websites.
Users are advised to let BitDefender software delete the trojan. For further details on the ad-hijacking trojan, please visit BitDefenders Defense Portal site at: http://www.bitdefender.com/site/VirusInfo/realTimeReporting/.
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About BitDefender®
BitDefender is a leading global provider of security solutions that satisfy the protection requirements of today's computing environment. The company offers one of the industry's fastest and most effective lines of security software, setting new standards for threat prevention, timely detection and mitigation. BitDefender delivers products and services to over 41 million home and corporate users in more than 180 countries. BitDefender has offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and Romania. Further information about BitDefender can be obtained by visiting: http://www.bitdefender.com.
About Bitdefender®
Bitdefender è il creatore di una delle linee di prodotti software per la sicurezza Internet più veloci, efficaci e certificate a livello internazionale. Sin dal 2001, Bitdefender è sempre stato un pioniere del settore, avendo introdotto e sviluppato tecnologie di protezione pluripremiate e innovative. Oggi le tecnologie Bitdefender proteggono l'esperienza digitale di circa 400 milioni di utenti home e corporate in tutto il mondo.
Di recente, la società ha ottenuto una serie di raccomandazioni dalle principali riviste indipendenti del settore negli Stati Uniti, in Inghilterra e in tutta Europa, tra cui ConsumerSearch, Which?, Stiftung Warentest e Taenk. La tecnologia antivirus di Bitdefender ha anche ottenuto i migliori risultati nelle prove di comparazione eseguite da AV Test e AV-Comparatives. Maggiori informazioni su Bitdefender e i suoi prodotti sono disponibili presso il nostro ufficio stampa per le soluzioni di sicurezza. In aggiunta, Bitdefender pubblica il blog Malware City in cui fornisce tutti gli ultimi aggiornamenti sulle minacce alla sicurezza, aiutando gli utenti a restare sempre informati nella propria battaglia quotidiana contro i malware.