Google Flags MSNBC.Com as Malware Site

I was reading news stories this afternoon on MSNBC when one of its pages triggered a malware warning in Google Chrome:

The website at www.msnbc.msn.com contains elements from the site adrotator.mediaplex.feed-mnptr.com, which appears to host malware -- software that can hurt your computer or otherwise operate without your consent. Just visiting a site that contains malware can infect your computer.

According to Google's safe browsing alert for that feed-mnptr.com domain, it has contained three trojan programs and five browser security exploits. The domain has been used as an intermediary to infect users of Digg, CNBC and MSN.Com.

I can't check without visiting the MSNBC page, which would be extremely dumb, but based on the domain the malware appears to be coming in from a third-party ad service. There was a report Wednesday that the Drudge Report had hosted malware, probably from an ad network.

Security · Viruses · Journalism · 2010/03/11 · 3 COMMENTS · Link

Comments

I can't check without visiting the MSNBC page, which would be extremely dumb...

A tool like curl or wget will allow you to safely download a page and examine it at your leisure.

#1 · Vance · 2010/03/13

I've seen this more and more often on the internet. Ads hosted by widgets cause errors in the page. Are there any tools available to prevent this kind of issue.

#2 · Miami Insurance · 2010/03/26

Its true. I've had the MSNBC site infect me twice, and both time were when I clicked a sports story. I recommend NOT reading their sports section.

#3 · Jimbo Jimbo · 2011/05/07