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Boarding Area installing malware [edited]

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Boarding Area installing malware [edited]

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Old Mar 31, 2015, 12:07 pm
  #16  
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Originally Posted by sbm12
Minor semantics, but there is no malware on the Boarding Area site. There is malware in some of the ads which get served up through the networks used by Boarding Area for such.

The solution will come when the ad serving situation is resolved.
A distinction without a difference from my POV.

BA could take the principled stand that you have and shut off the the ad networks serving up the malware on their site, for example, rather than waiting for the network to address the issue and keep serving up malware to their readers via the ad network in the meantime.

So this issue is 100% in BA's control.
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Old Mar 31, 2015, 12:09 pm
  #17  
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Originally Posted by kokonutz
So this issue is 100% in BA's control.
I agree with this view for the most part and have expressed such several times in the past few weeks. Alas, I don't get to make the decisions there. Until they figure out which of the ad networks is serving up the bad content and drop it as a supplier this will continue to be a problem.
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Old Mar 31, 2015, 5:18 pm
  #18  
 
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Originally Posted by stackm
You can install Noscript browser extension which disables this kind of nonsense for general web browsing...
AdBlocker allows advertisers to override the plugin now - Apparently money talks.

A combination of NoScript and Ghostery plugins along with using Firefox restricts pretty much ANYTHING from running in your browser unless you specifically white-list it. (no more drive by malware)

Using Chrome provides even more PII data to Goggle for their "enhanced" Ad serving platforms.
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Old Mar 31, 2015, 6:04 pm
  #19  
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Remember, Flyertalk has had its fair share of this as well. The problem is not strictly related to BA, it is sadly all part of dealing with ad networks. Lots of shady stuff out there

https://twitter.com/alaskanjackal/status/5945901774
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Old Apr 3, 2015, 11:06 am
  #20  
 
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I came here to mention Firefox + ABP + NoScript. That's definitely the way to go - I do cheat and enable the domain I'm on by default, but it does restrict 3rd party domains from running any JS unless you whitelist it.
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Old Apr 4, 2015, 10:10 am
  #21  
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I just saw on the face book that VFTW did a re-design. Anyone know if he left the malware-embedded ads behind?

Has BA addressed this? Is it safe to go back in the water?
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Old Apr 4, 2015, 1:38 pm
  #22  
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Not safe. Got kicked to one of the eternal pop-up pages literally 5 minutes ago. Had to CTRL-ALT-DEL. It's plainly ridiculous that they can't figure out who this is. In my opinion, they figured it out weeks ago and then realized that they couldn't afford to lose the advertiser.
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Old Apr 4, 2015, 2:38 pm
  #23  
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Originally Posted by MJO
In my opinion, they figured it out weeks ago and then realized that they couldn't afford to lose the advertiser.
Not true. Among other things, it is not a specific advertiser which is directly contracted causing the problems. But if it makes you feel better keep believing that.

Some progress is being made. Not solved yet at all, but progress is being made.
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Old Apr 4, 2015, 3:41 pm
  #24  
 
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noscript.net cures almost everything before it happens.

It's a bit of a hassle managing temporary permissions, particularly on new sites, but more than worth it imho. Used in conjunction with .......+ it does a lot of good. It does affect functionality but that's manageable.

The sheer number of scripts (including sniffer apps etc) running on most pages is absolutely shocking. Shut 'em down!
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Old Apr 5, 2015, 6:12 pm
  #25  
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Thanks for the update.

I'm not going to change the way I browse the internet for one site that can't control its malware problem. So I'm going to just keep avoiding BA and it's ad-showing blogs until this gets fixed.

Hope I'm not missing anything Earth-shattering.
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Old Apr 5, 2015, 7:41 pm
  #26  
 
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I dunno about you guys, Ad Block Plus works fine for me.
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Old Apr 5, 2015, 8:24 pm
  #27  
 
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Originally Posted by sbm12
Not true. Among other things, it is not a specific advertiser which is directly contracted causing the problems. But if it makes you feel better keep believing that.

Some progress is being made. Not solved yet at all, but progress is being made.
Semantics aside, it likely is a choice that could be made to remove the malware. Either as mentioned earlier by removing all the ads, or by swapping to a different contracted ad partner. While the problem is likely stemming from a couple of minor channels, it is still under the overall control of the partner.

It's a money decision.
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Old Apr 6, 2015, 7:16 am
  #28  
 
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A few months ago whenever I visited FT on my iPhone, I would these malicious ads that redirected me to the app store to download some application. Seems to have stopped now, but I didn't blame this site.
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Old Apr 6, 2015, 10:01 am
  #29  
 
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Originally Posted by kokonutz
Thanks for the update.

I'm not going to change the way I browse the internet for one site that can't control its malware problem.
It's hardly one site. The only time I got hit by drive-by malware was several years ago when I made the mistake of visiting the website of The Atlantic Monthly magazine. ANY site that uses a third-party service to serve up ads (which is most of them) is a potential risk.

After the Atlantic Monthly visit installed malware on my work computer, I installed ....... Plus and NoScript. Since then I've had no further problems. These days browsing the web with a plain browser is like having promiscuous sex without using a condom - it's just a matter of time before you pick up something nasty. It's sad, but that's reality. The damned malware writers have spoiled the net for the rest of us.
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Old Apr 6, 2015, 3:17 pm
  #30  
 
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To put this in a bit of perspective, though, I look at a fair number of sites and Boarding Area is the only one currently (or even within the past few months) where I repeatedly end up having to close stuff with Task Manager.

That's just absurd.
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