AfterDawn: News

UK Gov-backed start-up website directs users to malware

UK Government-backed website pushed by Prime Minister David Cameron found to link users to malware.

StartUp Britain was found to be linking to a page that served fake anti-virus scareware garbage to users. The website, designed to champions the UK's start-up businesses, only launched on Monday. The operators of the website removed the link when they were informed.



"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," StartUp Britain told the BBC News website in a statement.

The website featured a link to an article about billionaire Warren Buffet. The page then took users to a fake banking website, which attempted to peddle the malware.

"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," Paul Baccas, a senior threat researcher at Sophos, said.

Written by: James Delahunty @ 30 Mar 2011 14:45

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• 7 comments

• Zealousi

  haha stupid brits when will they ever learn and don't they have the entire county logged to a field of servers that log everyone's activity for up to 5 years for terrorism purposes, i am sure they could find out who did it with that in the backbone of their internet.
  

  31.3.2011 08:04 #1

• bogwart16

  Originally posted by Zealousi: haha stupid brits when will they ever learn and don't they have the entire county logged to a field of servers that log everyone's activity for up to 5 years for terrorism purposes, i am sure they could find out who did it with that in the backbone of their internet. Learn some manners. And some facts. We can do without Tea Party "politics" on this site.

  1.4.2011 17:00 #2

• aldan

  Originally posted by bogwart16: Originally posted by Zealousi: haha stupid brits when will they ever learn and don't they have the entire county logged to a field of servers that log everyone's activity for up to 5 years for terrorism purposes, i am sure they could find out who did it with that in the backbone of their internet. Learn some manners. And some facts. We can do without Tea Party "politics" on this site. my sentiments exactly.grab a brain.

  2.4.2011 14:05 #3

• xboxdvl2

  90% of websites have links to spyware.every website seems to be advertising russain girls or links to facebook 18+girls.websites dont check there links they get paid to ad a link to page.they receive there money and dont care what the link is.
  

  married to my car and computer.both of them have problems.

  3.4.2011 03:18 #4

• bogwart16

  Originally posted by xboxdvl2: 90% of websites have links to spyware.every website seems to be advertising russain girls or links to facebook 18+girls.websites dont check there links they get paid to ad a link to page.they receive there money and dont care what the link is. That's not my experience. Certainly 90% of websites use tracking cookies, and while that's a PITA it doesn't involve malware.
  
  The last major outbreak was due to these idiots exploiting an error in the way ads were served in CSS and got a load of people using the Pirate Bay as well as perfectly inocuous sites. TPB were very sloppy in the way they dealt with this, but other sites responded more quickly.
  
  I think if people click through to these "Russian Girls" sites they deserve everything they get anyway. It's been a long time since there was a free ride on the interwebs.

  3.4.2011 06:06 #5

• ps355528

  wanna see the UK last weekend? ..
  
  
  
  
  don't see that in the USofA do you? .. people standing up for something they believe in.. and taking it back to the bastard tories and their scum banker billionaire owners.
  

  
  
  ARR! Them pesky Navy! Get out of my sea!
  irc://irc.villageirc.net/afterdawn http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/

  3.4.2011 16:50 #6

• s_c47

  Originally posted by ps355528: wanna see the UK last weekend? ..
  
  
  
  
  don't see that in the USofA do you? .. people standing up for something they believe in.. and taking it back to the bastard tories and their scum banker billionaire owners. Sigh! Don't remind me. People here are too afraid to even do NON violent protests.
  

  Someone told me once that theres a right and wrong, and that punishment would come to those
  who dare to cross the line.
  But it must not be true for jerk-offs like you.
  Maybe it takes longer to catch a total a__hole.

  6.4.2011 03:53 #7