WARNING: Popular PORN site hit by malware SCAM – Have YOU been infected?

The hugely popular porn website has been hit with a deadly malware attack

MALWARE has been detected hidden within the adverts on one of the world's most popular PORN websites.

 

Security firm Malwarebytes claims it has found a campaign of malware hidden inside the online advertisements on porn site, XHamster – the 71st most popular website in the world.

The advert – which claimed it was for a service called Sex Messenger – was laced with tools used to identify whether or not the user was genuine, or simply a bot.

The malware could then work out if the visitor was running Microsoft's Internet Explorer, identify their security settings – and then redirect them to a fraudulent webpage.

Dubbed malvertising, the technique is often used to install ransomware – which holds the PC owner hostage with threats of exposing data, or with false accusations of criminal activity.

 

Those hit by the virus are given instructions on how to pay an imposed fine.

There's this idea that adult sites are more dangerous to visit than 'regular' sites

Jerome Segura 

Jerome Segura, a security consultant for Malwarebytes, said: "These efforts ensure that only real users will get to see the exploit kit landing page therefore excluding honeypots and security researchers alike."

Xhamster is ranked the 71st most visited website by web analytics firm Alexa. The pornographic site is visited by hundreds of millions of users each month.

A porn website is no more or less likely to attract malware than any other website.

Hugely successful search engine Yahoo was hit by the same malware, hidden inside online banner advertisements, earlier this year.

Malwarebytes says porn websites are no more at risk than 'normal' sites

"There's this idea that adult sites are more dangerous to visit than 'regular' sites," Mr Segura told Tech Week Europe.

"I don't believe it's entirely true especially for the top sites because they do dedicate a lot of resources to fighting fraud and malware.

"Based on what we have seen in the past months as far as malvertising goes, we have seen just as many top mainstream publishers as pornographic ones."

The firm that originally distributed the problem ad has since taken it down.