A security expert just revealed that as many as five million web sites hosted by Network Solutions, one of the biggest registrars of domain names and host to millions of personal and small business web sites, may have been serving up drive-by downloads, possibly for years.

A drive-by download is more accurately a “surf-by” download, where hackers infiltrate a web site or web hosting company, and will load the web pages up with malicious code like Trojans that will automatically infect the computer of any visitor to that site.

According to the expert that discovered the mass infection (which Network Solutions so far denies) “This is one of the biggest infections for drive-by download attacks that I’ve seen.”

Experts seem to have traced the problem to a piece of software installed by Network Solutions and which may have been compromised. Any visitors to the infected sites were attacked with something called a “Nuke” toolkit. If it managed to infect a passing computer, that computer would find itself barraged with pop-up ads and page redirects designed to generate illegitimate advertising revenues for the hackers.

The malware appears to be a variant of Koobface, the now-notorious worm that has haunted Facebook for months.

It will be interesting to hear Network Solutions’ full response and explanation, other than the half hearted denial so far. They are advising users who might have downloaded their software to remove it from their computers and then scan for malware.   When I visited Network Solution’s own web site today, I couldn’t find a single mention of the attack.

Lessons learned?

• Shields Up! The only protection you have against threats like this is to maximize the security levels on your computer.

• Patch, patch, patch! Always apply the latest patches and updates as soon as they become available, especially for your browsers.

Malicious widget hacked millions of Web sites

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/081610-malicious-widget-hacked-millions-of.html?source=NWWNLE_nlt_security_strategies_2010-08-17

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