Wtf Deviant Art Viruses?!
Okay, so I know I'm not the only one with this problem.
The ads on Deviant Art are full of viruses. My firewall and antivirus system are going nutz trying to block all the attacks. Internet explorer is constantly like "Hold the fuck up *blocks cross site scripting.* And just now, I had to alt-crtl-del close a tab because it kept giving me an error message, trying to coerce me into going to a website!
What. The. Fuck.
I Googled it, and I found out this was a fairly common problem. In fact, if you type in "deviant art virus," you'll get countless complaints and questions regarding DA and the viruses people are getting. This has been a problem for two or three years, as I gather. DA has been made aware of the virus issue, and they say they have fixed it. Wrong.
In the course of surfing DA for only one month, I had my firewall block the following attempts while on DA pages ONLY:
-Suspicious Browser Fingerprinting 3 (twice from the same IP address, two more times from a different one)
-Malicious Toolkit Website 9 (twice, from two different IPs)
-Malicious Toolkit Website 10
-Fake AntiVirus Redirect 27
-Fake AntiVirus Download Request
It has to stop. I know what you're going to say. "Download Firefox and install antivirus software." I'm the first person to advocate protecting yourself. Even if you go to pages that are very low risk for viruses, protect yourself. Do you remember the LJ outages? They were caused by DDoS attacks. Do you know what causes DDoS attacks? Computers that are infected with viruses. So even if you don't care about your system or information, would you please care about the web communities you use?
Antivirus software is free, but you might be shit out of luck in some instances. Some free antivirus programs do not provide firewall and website blocking protection. You have to get infected first, scan your computer, and then remove the infection. Even if you're smart enough not to click on the virus ad, you might tap your mouse the wrong way and click on it by accident, infecting your computer. Some viruses don't even need you to click on them: they run scripts in the background and let themselves right in. New viruses are being developed constantly, and you may be unfortunate enough to download one before a removal tool is developed.
The solution is usually to use a different brand of antivirus protection for the process, but few computer techs will tell you to always have two forms of antivirus software installed. They compete for the same resources, and slow your computer down to gridlock. McAfee won't even offer you support if you have another antivirus software installed. I know this because one day, my antivirus software got stuck scanning the E drive (the CD drive with no CD loaded). I called tech support, and they said, "You have Spybot SD installed on your system. Uninstall it and it will solve the problem." Then they hung up. I did uninstall it, and SpyBot SD asked why in the uninstall dialog. It basically said, "If you're doing this because McAfee told you to, that's utter bullshit because we couldn't replicate this problem on any of our machines." I continued and what do you know, it didn't fix the problem!
Here's the real kicker, antivirus companies like Symantec do not recognize DA as a malicious website. It's true that the site itself is safe. Do you know what the real problem is? The ads! So, how do you proactively protect yourself from the ads? You can get an ad blocker and restrict scripts and etc, or you can buy a premium membership to remove the ads completely. I recognize that DA needs to make revenue to keep the site running, which is why they host ads. But it's fairly common knowledge that these attacks are coming from their ad provider, who is doing an insufficient job screening the ads they post.
If you find a malicious ad, you can report it, but unless you have every single detail about how and when it happened, they can't do much for you. If you were attacked, probably the first thing you did was close your web browser. Even if you did pull up the culprit page, the ad its has probably been cycled through already. Most people report that this process is ineffective.
So, my beef with this is, even though there are things you can do as a consumer to alleviate yourself from most of the threat, why should the responsibility fall on you alone? Many people have suggested that by sticking with this virus-infected ad company, DA is actually using scare tactics to pressure you into buying a paid membership. I doubt that, but after several years of complaints, it's starting to look this way. Many people, rather than give into bullying, simply refuse to go back to the site.
Now, I feel that the real reason that DA exists is to promote and connect artists. Forcing visitors away from the site is counterproductive to the exposure for both the artists and the website. Perhaps some people feel that if you're too cheap to buy a premium membership, you're not the sort of traffic the site wants anyway. However, this argument fails to consider that these individuals may be buying prints, merchandise, or commissioning the artists that do pay for premium memberships themselves. Not protecting the consumers shows that DA does not value its members, paid or otherwise.
Can someone please tell me why DA has yet to change ad companies? There are plenty of reputable, virus free ad companies that can do the same job for the same price. Some companies will even allow you to report belligerent ads. I feel that DA should do its part in keeping the internet safe for everyone, and stop putting money into such an ignorant, irresponsible company.
The ads on Deviant Art are full of viruses. My firewall and antivirus system are going nutz trying to block all the attacks. Internet explorer is constantly like "Hold the fuck up *blocks cross site scripting.* And just now, I had to alt-crtl-del close a tab because it kept giving me an error message, trying to coerce me into going to a website!
What. The. Fuck.
I Googled it, and I found out this was a fairly common problem. In fact, if you type in "deviant art virus," you'll get countless complaints and questions regarding DA and the viruses people are getting. This has been a problem for two or three years, as I gather. DA has been made aware of the virus issue, and they say they have fixed it. Wrong.
In the course of surfing DA for only one month, I had my firewall block the following attempts while on DA pages ONLY:
-Suspicious Browser Fingerprinting 3 (twice from the same IP address, two more times from a different one)
-Malicious Toolkit Website 9 (twice, from two different IPs)
-Malicious Toolkit Website 10
-Fake AntiVirus Redirect 27
-Fake AntiVirus Download Request
It has to stop. I know what you're going to say. "Download Firefox and install antivirus software." I'm the first person to advocate protecting yourself. Even if you go to pages that are very low risk for viruses, protect yourself. Do you remember the LJ outages? They were caused by DDoS attacks. Do you know what causes DDoS attacks? Computers that are infected with viruses. So even if you don't care about your system or information, would you please care about the web communities you use?
Antivirus software is free, but you might be shit out of luck in some instances. Some free antivirus programs do not provide firewall and website blocking protection. You have to get infected first, scan your computer, and then remove the infection. Even if you're smart enough not to click on the virus ad, you might tap your mouse the wrong way and click on it by accident, infecting your computer. Some viruses don't even need you to click on them: they run scripts in the background and let themselves right in. New viruses are being developed constantly, and you may be unfortunate enough to download one before a removal tool is developed.
The solution is usually to use a different brand of antivirus protection for the process, but few computer techs will tell you to always have two forms of antivirus software installed. They compete for the same resources, and slow your computer down to gridlock. McAfee won't even offer you support if you have another antivirus software installed. I know this because one day, my antivirus software got stuck scanning the E drive (the CD drive with no CD loaded). I called tech support, and they said, "You have Spybot SD installed on your system. Uninstall it and it will solve the problem." Then they hung up. I did uninstall it, and SpyBot SD asked why in the uninstall dialog. It basically said, "If you're doing this because McAfee told you to, that's utter bullshit because we couldn't replicate this problem on any of our machines." I continued and what do you know, it didn't fix the problem!
Here's the real kicker, antivirus companies like Symantec do not recognize DA as a malicious website. It's true that the site itself is safe. Do you know what the real problem is? The ads! So, how do you proactively protect yourself from the ads? You can get an ad blocker and restrict scripts and etc, or you can buy a premium membership to remove the ads completely. I recognize that DA needs to make revenue to keep the site running, which is why they host ads. But it's fairly common knowledge that these attacks are coming from their ad provider, who is doing an insufficient job screening the ads they post.
If you find a malicious ad, you can report it, but unless you have every single detail about how and when it happened, they can't do much for you. If you were attacked, probably the first thing you did was close your web browser. Even if you did pull up the culprit page, the ad its has probably been cycled through already. Most people report that this process is ineffective.
So, my beef with this is, even though there are things you can do as a consumer to alleviate yourself from most of the threat, why should the responsibility fall on you alone? Many people have suggested that by sticking with this virus-infected ad company, DA is actually using scare tactics to pressure you into buying a paid membership. I doubt that, but after several years of complaints, it's starting to look this way. Many people, rather than give into bullying, simply refuse to go back to the site.
Now, I feel that the real reason that DA exists is to promote and connect artists. Forcing visitors away from the site is counterproductive to the exposure for both the artists and the website. Perhaps some people feel that if you're too cheap to buy a premium membership, you're not the sort of traffic the site wants anyway. However, this argument fails to consider that these individuals may be buying prints, merchandise, or commissioning the artists that do pay for premium memberships themselves. Not protecting the consumers shows that DA does not value its members, paid or otherwise.
Can someone please tell me why DA has yet to change ad companies? There are plenty of reputable, virus free ad companies that can do the same job for the same price. Some companies will even allow you to report belligerent ads. I feel that DA should do its part in keeping the internet safe for everyone, and stop putting money into such an ignorant, irresponsible company.