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fitzontherocks
Dec 15, 2008, 2:38 AM
Post #26 of 42
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Thanks. Hey, I hope this doesn't sound like A) a dumb question, or B) I'm trying to tell you how to do your job, but as a former RC advertising client, I would sure want to know if something weird like this happened with my ad. Will you alert both Coors and the network? If they're a legit advertiser, I'm sure they didn't intend to plant a virus.
I'm a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale man, so I'm virus-free.
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philbox
Moderator
Dec 15, 2008, 4:37 AM
Post #27 of 42
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Is it worth the effort to seek compensation from the advertiser in question?
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philbox
Moderator
Dec 15, 2008, 5:47 AM
Post #29 of 42
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ddt wrote: philbox wrote: Is it worth the effort to seek compensation from the advertiser in question? Yeah... I'd say a free round for all! 
Woohoo, make mine a triple.
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blondgecko
Moderator
Dec 15, 2008, 7:17 AM
Post #30 of 42
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philbox wrote: ddt wrote: philbox wrote: Is it worth the effort to seek compensation from the advertiser in question? Yeah... I'd say a free round for all! Woohoo, make mine a triple.
I thought you didn't drink?
... oh wait. It's Coors Light. Never mind. 
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j_ung
Dec 15, 2008, 1:47 PM
Post #31 of 42
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Registered: Nov 21, 2003
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fitzontherocks wrote: Thanks. Hey, I hope this doesn't sound like A) a dumb question, or B) I'm trying to tell you how to do your job, but as a former RC advertising client, I would sure want to know if something weird like this happened with my ad. Will you alert both Coors and the network? If they're a legit advertiser, I'm sure they didn't intend to plant a virus. I'm a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale man, so I'm virus-free.
We'll alert the network (probably happening right now), but I don' think we have any contact with Coors. To quote angry: "That's just a guess, but I'm right."
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j_ung
Dec 15, 2008, 7:00 PM
Post #32 of 42
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Registered: Nov 21, 2003
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If you haven't been around for a few days, you may not know that, starting Friday, we had a particularly bad ad running. It is worth noting that the ad was using the Coors brand, but wasn’t connected with the company in any way. The ad messed up the way the site loaded for a lot of people and attempted to prompt users to download a malware program. The fact that the ad launched on the weekend made it more difficult to isolate and fix. We responded as soon as possible, but the ad was intermittently visible to users between Friday evening and Saturday afternoon.
As always, it's a good idea to make sure your antivirus software and computer settings are up to date to block this sort of thing if it squeaks through the defenses of whatever websites you visit. If you are concerned that your computer may have been affected by the ads, it's probably a good idea to go here and follow the directions:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/...remove-extra-antivir
Going forward, I and the Namemedia geeks are doing a few things to prevent similar problematic ads from making it to the site in the future:
1. The ad folks at Namemedia are beefing up their tools for detecting ads that contain adware/malware/spyware.
2. New ad campaigns from new advertisers will no longer be launched late in the day, especially on Friday. This will ensure that the right people are available if there’s a problem.
3. We’ll be installing an emergency ad-kill switch that will allow me (and a couple other select folks) to quickly remove ads if a similar problem comes to our attention.
Okay, that's about all I have, except for this. The buck has to stop at somebody, and on teh .Knob, that's me. I promise I'll do my best to stop it from happening again.
Thanks folks,
Jay
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hopperhopper
Dec 15, 2008, 7:57 PM
Post #33 of 42
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Registered: Jun 29, 2007
Posts: 475
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I downloaded the anti-malware and ran it. It found and removed one entry, but I'm still getting the prompts to "Update my AVG". Does this mean the virus is still there? I'm running my other scanners now.
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j_ung
Dec 15, 2008, 8:04 PM
Post #34 of 42
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I also posted in the Green Room about this, HH. We'll get an answer for you asap.
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blondgecko
Moderator
Dec 15, 2008, 8:06 PM
Post #35 of 42
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Registered: Jul 2, 2004
Posts: 7666
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hopperhopper wrote: I downloaded the anti-malware and ran it. It found and removed one entry, but I'm still getting the prompts to "Update my AVG". Does this mean the virus is still there? I'm running my other scanners now.
If that's the message you're getting, it's not coming from the malware - that calls itself "Extra Antivir 2.8". AVG is a legit antivirus package.
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hopperhopper
Dec 15, 2008, 8:11 PM
Post #36 of 42
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Registered: Jun 29, 2007
Posts: 475
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Okay, thanks BG.
I have AVG, but I've never seen a prompt to update it come through Windows. And it started right around the time this whole thing happened, so I didn't want to take any chances.
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blondgecko
Moderator
Dec 15, 2008, 8:36 PM
Post #37 of 42
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No problem.
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churningindawake
Dec 15, 2008, 9:33 PM
Post #38 of 42
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Registered: Jul 5, 2007
Posts: 5292
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Lets hope that this doesn't happen again. I'll keep the program on my computer, just in case...
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j_ung
Dec 15, 2008, 10:55 PM
Post #39 of 42
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Registered: Nov 21, 2003
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Prolly a good plan, WB.
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churningindawake
Dec 15, 2008, 10:58 PM
Post #40 of 42
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Registered: Jul 5, 2007
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j_ung wrote: Prolly a good plan, WB.
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blondgecko
Moderator
Dec 16, 2008, 12:21 AM
Post #41 of 42
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Registered: Jul 2, 2004
Posts: 7666
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Could be worse. My laptop was infected with something very like this a year or two back. They were much more organised, though. When I went looking for a solution, the first five or so hits on Google - including the Wikipedia entry - turned out to be fronts for the originators, trying to sell a "solution" to the problem. All you had to do was pay them $20 - by credit card, of course. It was all very elaborate.
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churningindawake
Dec 16, 2008, 1:42 AM
Post #42 of 42
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Registered: Jul 5, 2007
Posts: 5292
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I've had that a few times, it gets very annoying. You just keep trying to search for a way to solve the problem, and all you get is stuff from the creators of it. It took me about 3 hours to get rid of one of the problems. I think that I had to search through about 10 Google pages before I finally found something that seemed reliable.
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