Porn sites fell victim to malvesting campaign in online ads
Security firm Malwarebytes reports that the malware campaign detected in online ads on Yahoo's search engine earlier this year is now also hitting porn sites .
The ad is for a service called Sex Messenger, and also contains tools to identify whether it is a genuine user or a bot.
It appears most prominently on porn site XHamster, one of the most visited domains in the world. However, the company said that porn sites are no more dangerous than other sites. The ad has now been removed.
The malware, which also makes use of cloud-based platforms to hide what is really happening, operated by redirecting the user to a fake page after it had first concluded that the user was browsing the web with Internet Explorer and had detected the device's security settings.
The malware often installs ransomware on its victims' devices, which displays a page containing false accusations of criminal activity and asks the victim to pay a "fine.".
In this case, the advertisement was found with such frequency that researchers were able to study it in depth.
XHamster is currently ranked the 71st most visited website in the world by web analytics company Alexa and attracts hundreds of millions of users each month.
But the online porn industry is not investing in security, added Malwarebytes spokesman Segura.
