Web ads carrying viruses?

I’ve never had much fun with anti-virus software. In the past I’ve called McAfee Malware. But according to the Wall Street Journal it looks like those with an active scanner are doing a little better than those without:

In May, a virus in a banner ad on tomshardware.com automatically switched visitors to a Web site that downloaded “malware” — malicious software designed to attack a computer — onto the visitor’s computer…users of an online forum hosted on the Tom’s site discussed the case, with some people noting that their antivirus software had protected their computers and others lamenting that a virus had been downloaded onto theirs.

[begin deep portentous rumble]

So…wait? You can get a virus by loading a page that has an infected ad on it? This is bad news indeed. Needless to say the rest of the article has quotes from a variety of ad networks touting their screening features. But that virus-laden ads will probably continue to slip through the system.

In fact, the article mentions that almost 7% of all sponsored link ads—those are the text, google kind that physically can’t carry a virus themselves—lead to suspicious sites that might automatically stuff a computer full of malware.

[Insert ominous music and possibly thunder].

As a blogger this raises an important question: should you worry about ads on your site?

Many online bloggers rely heavily or entirely on ad revenue to cover their costs, ads that are automatically served by Google, RightMedia, or some similar service, and serving a bad ad could go a long way towards destroying your traffic.

…but realistically, I think this issue is more or less a non-issue. Let’s think about it. It’s a known problem, and one that if unchecked, could create serious roadblocks for a multi-billion dollar industry’s product. Guess what? They’re going to stay on top of it.

And that scary 7% statistic? That’s for ads that link to sites that might download malware. And they’re sketchy looking. You can trust people to be smart enough not to click on sketchy ads.

The kind of ad that infected computers from Tom’s Hardware is not likely to happen nearly as often as 7%, and if you serve only text ads, it will never happen. The gaps in ad security will get smaller and smaller as flash/ajax/whatever’s next technologies make it harder for ads to inject malware into your systems.

Go blog. Be happy.

[begin playing Bobby McFerrin...]