StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Just how much revenue do they bring in to help offset the cost of running the site anyway?

I'm finding that more and more often, it's banner ads or flash ads that spread virus payloads; I think I got hit Antivirus 2007 off a the old Yukupuu site for HPCA...

These are GoogleAds, I think the danger of being infected with a virus from them is fairly small. As long as you don't click on them.

It'd be bad revenue for googel if they caused viroids to spread all over the internetubulewebs.

Don't worry too much about it, Sheppy-Poo! ^_____^

I hadn't thought of the virus piggyback potential... I saw them as a source of amusement. Like when someone's arguing about religion and the adbots see words like 'Christian' and 'Church' in the subject matter and, all out-of-context, springs a banner for Christian Singles Near You. A nice, ironic chuckle.

How is revenue generated? Don't they send a few pennies every time someone clicks on them? If no one clicks on them, don't they algorithmically calculate a waste of effort and pull the ad?

Middle East threads seem to generate mostly "Learn Hebrew online" and "Muslims Singles Network" ads. Heehee.

IIRC Mike mentioned that they help a great deal with off setting the cost of the board for him, and as he said in the stickied thread in here, most of us turds aren't exactly setting the paypal button on fire to help.

Is this even that big of an annoyance that it needs to be brought up?

Irony alert: the banner ad that I see at the bottom of this thread is about how to make your own banner ads and display them on websites.

OK...does anyone really click on those ads? Really?

Well, if they do, why should the board save them from their own stupidity?

Thanas wrote:OK...does anyone really click on those ads? Really?

Well, if they do, why should the board save them from their own stupidity?

I'm afraid you don't understand. You don't have to click on the ads anymore; I never clicked on the ads on Yukupuu; and I still got hit by Antivirus 2007.

MKSheppard wrote:

Thanas wrote:OK...does anyone really click on those ads? Really?

Well, if they do, why should the board save them from their own stupidity?

I'm afraid you don't understand. You don't have to click on the ads anymore; I never clicked on the ads on Yukupuu; and I still got hit by Antivirus 2007.

Get an ad\flash blocker. I do and I don't see the banner ads here.

MKSheppard wrote:

Thanas wrote:OK...does anyone really click on those ads? Really?

Well, if they do, why should the board save them from their own stupidity?

I'm afraid you don't understand. You don't have to click on the ads anymore; I never clicked on the ads on Yukupuu; and I still got hit by Antivirus 2007.

OK. I'm not the most computer savvy guy, but how can you get a virus from an ad without clicking it? That would mean the code from the virus would have to be constantly transmitting through the ad?

havokeff wrote:

MKSheppard wrote:

Thanas wrote:OK...does anyone really click on those ads? Really?

Well, if they do, why should the board save them from their own stupidity?

I'm afraid you don't understand. You don't have to click on the ads anymore; I never clicked on the ads on Yukupuu; and I still got hit by Antivirus 2007.

OK. I'm not the most computer savvy guy, but how can you get a virus from an ad without clicking it? That would mean the code from the virus would have to be constantly transmitting through the ad?

Yes, the virus is in the banner itself.

If you don't want to see the banners (on ANY sites, not just this one), then all you have to do is get Firefox + AdBlock Plus and subscribe to one of the block lists. Presto, no more ads.

As far as I'm aware, there still is no way for a trojan to automatically run in Firefox anyway; you'd have to manually download and open it. If you're still using Internet Explorer 6, then you have no business being on the Internet anyway.

Crayz9000 wrote:As far as I'm aware, there still is no way for a trojan to automatically run in Firefox anyway; you'd have to manually download and open it. If you're still using Internet Explorer 6, then you have no business being on the Internet anyway.

Nowadays the favorite attack vector of malware is to exploit flaws in add-ons instead of the browser itself. Think about it, when was the last time you updated Flash, Realplayer, or Quicktime?

Dominus Atheos wrote:Nowadays the favorite attack vector of malware is to exploit flaws in add-ons instead of the browser itself. Think about it, when was the last time you updated Flash, Realplayer, or Quicktime?

About a week or two ago... but then again, I'm running Ubuntu, so it helpfully notifies me when an update's ready. Flash on Windows does no such thing; QT does, but I think most users consider the Apple Updater an annoyance.

Crayz9000 wrote:

Dominus Atheos wrote:Nowadays the favorite attack vector of malware is to exploit flaws in add-ons instead of the browser itself. Think about it, when was the last time you updated Flash, Realplayer, or Quicktime?

About a week or two ago... but then again, I'm running Ubuntu, so it helpfully notifies me when an update's ready. Flash on Windows does no such thing; QT does, but I think most users consider the Apple Updater an annoyance.

Flash updates itself fairly regularly, but I don't think they're coming out with new updates every month. Of course, I'm always too busy to update it when the reminder pops up...

MKSheppard wrote:I'm finding that more and more often, it's banner ads or flash ads that spread virus payloads; I think I got hit Antivirus 2007 off a the old Yukupuu site for HPCA...

Are any warnings originating from here?

If from here, what is the name of the virus? Are you sure it's not just a privacy warning (third-party tracking cookie, for instance)?