An FYI to everyone.
From an email I’ve received:
There are extremely reliable reports circulating of malicious ads
delivered through popular websites being used to deliver malware
to vulnerable computers. This traffic has been seen at other
higher education sites.
As examples of how widespread this is (this is by no means a
complete list):
abcnews.go(dot)com
drudgereport(dot)com
ads.cnn(dot)com
search.usatoday(dot)com
ad.doubleclick(dot)net
animal.discovery(dot)com
www.realotor(dot)com
The delivering sites are not involved, but the ad providers to these
sites have unwittingly accepted ads that contain code designed to
infect machines. At this point, it is best to assume that all ads
present some risk.
There was more to the email… but it just contained information on how to protect yourself from such threats. Standard precautions.
I do not know if this means that just the ad being displayed will cause an infection or… if you actually have to click on them.