Thursday, February 24, 2005

Don't Click "Next Blog"

If you're using Microsoft's Internet Explorer, according to this TechRepublic article:
Visitors to Blogger's Blogspot.com network have complained that they were exposed to infected sites when they used the "Next Blog" link. The feature was designed to help people discover new journals and takes Web surfers to a random Blogspot site.

"They left the back door wide open," said Ben Edelman, a Harvard University researcher who has documented the vulnerability on his site, referring to Blogger.

[...]

Visitors to Blogger sites at Blogspot.com say they have been targeted with pop-up ads seeking to deliver malicious code to their computers. One ad erroneously warns people that their computers are vulnerable to spyware and prompts them to click the ad to protect themselves. Clicking the ad launches a download that infects a machine with spyware.

I'm not running MS IE, and find the "Next Blog" feature kind of amusing, ejecting you in new worlds, seemingly at random (is it actually?). Though, clicking through for awhile makes it painstakingly clear that Blogspot is used more and more for advertising purposes. And that some goofy Asian kids put a lot of time in designing gut-wrenching eye bleeders of templates.

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