Howdy all, a valued member inadvertently provided a link in one of his posts to a well-known website --- msnbc.msn.com. 

Had another valued member not reported that this link contained embedded virus within the graphics, I would not have been prompted to run that site through AVG Threat Labs.  Potentially active threats were reported.

The largest percentage of threats originate from offers to download a free video, allowing malware to nestle into your system. A smaller percentage doesn't require any clicks at all, although it's unknown which page on msnbc.msn.com present a threat. 

Plugged in Beliefnet.com. Our website reports clean. 

This is an easy mistake any of us could make. I generally assume that large sites like this are relatively safe; so much for assuming. Any links I post in the future will be swept through AVG Threat Labs beforehand; I encourage other members to do the same.

Any other tips and expertise are welcome. 

AS

Thanks for jumping in Ur2... Can you help us understand why videos are more susceptible to malware than other links? 

Is there potential for Youtube videos  and musical clips to act as carriers for virus?

Oct 30, 2010 -- 11:16AM, Agnosticspirit wrote:

...why videos are more susceptible to malware than other links?

I don't know that they are more susceptible than other links. However, they are more likely to attract attention than many other types of links, so you can spread malware faster with a link that says "Sexy exercise video!" than one that says "Stock market quotes!". People who want to spread malware try to create links that people are likely to click, or to add their malware to sites that are already popular.

Oct 30, 2010 -- 11:16AM, Agnosticspirit wrote:

Is there potential for Youtube videos
and musical clips to act as carriers for virus?

Of course. Any file can contain a virus. Word processors generally can't execute computer code, so text files are usually safe, even if they contain virus code.

Google does make an effort to prevent infected videos from being posted on YouTube. YouTube is probably safer than other sites that offer videos. But Google can't absolutely guarantee that YouTube has no infected videos.

BTW, ftp is used to transfer all types of files, not just text files. You can get infected files by using ftp just as easily as you can get them by any other method.