{"id":349793,"date":"2011-03-30T12:33:14","date_gmt":"2011-03-30T12:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/03\/30\/startup-website-linked-to-malware\/"},"modified":"2011-03-30T12:33:14","modified_gmt":"2011-03-30T12:33:14","slug":"startup-website-linked-to-malware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/03\/30\/startup-website-linked-to-malware\/","title":{"rendered":"Startup website linked to malware"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n \t\t
\n 30 March 2011<\/span>
\nLast updated at <\/span>08:33 ET<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

A government-backed website, designed to champion the UK’s start-up businesses has inadvertently linked users to malware, it has emerged.<\/p>\n

StartUp Britain, which launched on Monday, linked to a page hosting fake anti-virus programs, according to security firm Sophos.<\/p>\n

It will be an embarrassment for the government, which has been widely promoting the initiative.<\/p>\n

The link was removed shortly after launch, according to StartUp Britain.<\/p>\n

It told the BBC in a statement: “There were some issues with a link on the website at the launch. This issue has been addressed and any links that were not operating as intended have been amended or removed.”<\/p>\n

Malvertising<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Paul Baccas, a senior threat researcher at Sophos, the link featured in an article about US investor Warren Buffet and took users to a fake banking site.<\/p>\n

“It went to a third-party site, bankling.com, where users were redirected to a fake anti-virus page given a prompt saying their computer was infected and encouraging them to download a fix,” he said.<\/p>\n

In reality, the fix contained malware.<\/p>\n

The exploit only affected users of Internet Explorer, including the most recent versions. Other browsers, including Firefox, were not affected.<\/p>\n

The slip will be embarrassing for the government, especially as Prime Minister David Cameron had helped launch the site and the Number 10 website linked prominently to it.<\/p>\n

Last month, the London Stock Exchange hosted booby-trapped adverts that asked visitors to download similar fake security software.<\/p>\n

And this week, music streaming service Spotify apologised after ‘malverts’ were served to some of its users.<\/p>\n

So-called malvertising is becoming a growing problem for businesses.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p>\n

Follow this link:
\nStartup website linked to malware<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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