Triona's Tech Tips

As if scareware (fake antivirus software) via legitimate news sites wasn’t bad enough, now we’re getting a veritable swarm of malware (virus-like stuff you don’t want) via ad services sold to legitimate web sites by Google and Yahoo, among others.

The ad services, including DoubleClick, FastClick and ValueClick, offer infected ads that use malicious PDF files to inflict viruses via bugs in older versions of Acrobat Reader. You don’t even have to click on anything, merely visit a page with an infected ad. All you see is a window opening and closing as the PDF is launched. Remember, Google, Yahoo and the infected web sites are not going to protect you from this stuff. Your only option is to protect yourself.

Your best protections are using strong security measures and keeping your Adobe Reader (aka Acrobat) up to date. Meaning, if you’re not using the current version, 9.1.3 (and I know many of you are still on version 7 and earlier), you want to RUN not walk to Adobe’s site to download the latest version.

Installing Adobe Reader is similar to installing Flash. You’ll have to install Adobe’s Download Manager if you haven’t already, then download and install the Reader software. I’ve put the links for Acrobat Reader and Flash Player in the right-hand sidebar under Help For PC Users and Help For Mac Users.

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