Spyware can infect your phone or computer via the ads you see online - report

[usonian]

Posted in GD because ad-delivered malware can infect everyone, and because ads can be blocked.
If you want to support a site like DU, get a star.

Ads also tarnish search ranking. And they surveil you though tracking bugs in the ads.
Not that anyone uses search.

Insanet’s spyware, Sherlock, is not the first spyware that can be installed on a phone without the need to trick the phone’s owner into clicking on a malicious link or downloading a malicious file. NSO’s iPhone-hacking Pegasus, for instance, is one of the most controversial spyware tools to emerge in the past five years.




Diagram showing the different entities involved in real time bidding, and the requests and responses. When you see an ad on a web page, behind the scenes an ad network has just automatically conducted an auction to decide which advertiser won the right to present their ad to you. Eric Zeng, CC BY-ND

What sets Insanet’s Sherlock apart from Pegasus is its exploitation of ad networks rather than vulnerabilities in phones. A Sherlock user creates an ad campaign that narrowly focuses on the target’s demographic and location, and places a spyware-laden ad with an ad exchange. Once the ad is served to a web page that the target views, the spyware is secretly installed on the target’s phone or computer.

More here:
https://theconversation.com/spyware-can-infect-your-phone-or-computer-via-the-ads-you-see-online-report-213685


Lots more here: Original Article.
https://archive.md/irhB5
Revealed: Israeli Cyber Firms Have Developed an 'Insane' New Spyware Tool. No Defense Exists

A Haaretz investigation reveals that Israeli cyber companies developed technology that exploits the advertising system at the heart of the online economy to monitor civilians, hack into their phones and computers, and spy on them. This terrifying capability, against which no defense currently exists, has already been sold to a nondemocratic country.


Classic article:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/oct/24/advertising-poison-hooked

Advertising is a poison that demeans even love – and we're hooked on it
George Monbiot

Disclaimer: some will disagree with me, and some have done so, but unlike magazine ads, online ads burden your browsing experience, can deliver malware, and surveil you. I never heard of poison ink, nor a bug/AirTag/RFID in a magazine.

Yet. 👽

[justaprogressive]

1. 11+ trackers on DU site.

Privacy advocates (like myself) not happy with that...

bshr.ezodn.com
agan.adlightning.com
securepubads.g.doubleclick.net
g.ezodn.com
go.ezodn.com
g.ezoic.net
ads.pubmatic.com
img.youtube.com
platform.twitter.com
c.amazon-adsystem.com
www.facebook.com

'jus sayin

[50 Shades Of Blue]

2. Which I why I use Firefox as my browser, and adblockers up the wazoo. I do pay to join quite a few

sites (like this one) instead.

[RKP5637]

3. Same here, in Linux. Also, duckduckgo is a great browser IMO. n/t

[Lonestarblue]

7. I use duckduckgo and still get ads related to my searches.

What’s a good adblocker to use? Even as a subscriber to the Washington Post, I get so many ads that some web pages shut down and reload in the middle of reading articles or comments.

[RKP5637]

10. Here's the info.

I use Firefox as my main browser.
I use DuckDuckGo as my search engine under Firefox.

I then have the following extensions enabled in Firefox.

DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials

Privacy Badger

uBlock Origin

Hope this helps some.

PS: This is on a Linux desktop.

[Lonestarblue]

11. Thanks. I'll see if this works with an iPad.

[dalton99a]

4. Kick

[FakeNoose]

5. I do very little internet surfing on my cellphone

... and that's probably unusual for most Americans.

Almost all of my internet browsing is done on my desktop computer, with adblockers and malware & spyware finders up the wazoo. I think my Norton utilities are pretty good for that. Also Ublock is very good, and free.

The cellphones are much more vulnerable to getting infected or getting one's privacy invaded.

[TheBlackAdder]

6. Abusive sites are Talkingpointsmemo with hundreds, RawStory and even Crooks & Liars.

[AntivaxHunters]

8. Yup! I use AdBlockPlus & have for 15 years

It's unsafe to be running a browser without an ad blocker. Everyone should be using one otherwise you're just asking to be infected, Think of it as a condom for your computer.

[TheBlackAdder]

9. Firefox w/NoScript, uBlock, EFF Privacy Badger & DuckDuckGo's Privacy Essentials gets rid of most.

.

No one product provides protection. You need to stack multiple products to leverage strengths from each.

Enhancer for YouTube blocks their ads for seamless viewing.

.

[milestogo]

12. I have an adblocker running

It stops me from seeing a lot of ads, and that means the sites don't let you view their article.
So be it.

[usonian]

13. I have found that Reader in Safari knocks off the "We see that you are using an adblocker" bullshit.

Perhaps other readers/readability do as well.

Turning off JavaScript can cure nasty cases. I keep the settings window open to do and undo this easily, but sometimes JavaScript delivers the content.

And you can always copy the site URL, then go to archive.{md, is, ph and so on} and plug the site URL into the text field. That almost always gets you the content.

And if it really does require a login. Well, bye bye.

SUPPORT DU.

[milestogo]

15. Thank you.

[dlk]

14. I like to use Qwant and Brave for browsing

And I use ad blockers, as well. It's interesting and telling to see how certain sites don't work when using them.