So I'm just doing this and that, when Bitdefender pops up with a message saying an infected web resource was detected (and blocked). Hmmm...
I wasn't actively browsing at the time, so it wasn't a page I'd opened. Browser 1 has 4 pages open...Google Drive, Google Sheets for 2 files, and 7zip. None of these have any other elements. Browser 2...2 GMail tabs. One to a forum that has no ads. One to a web comic that doesn't stream ads. 3 others...Tom's home page, and 2 to Food Network. These DO stream ads.
It certainly appears that it was one of these two sites. And these sites are just about as reputable and mainstream as you can get. Nor am I criticizing the sites at all. The takeaway is: DON'T assume any more that ANY web site that serves ads is safe. It is NOT enough to stay on the straight and narrow. Scanning for malware and viruses post facto is too late; we had a spate of people asking for help in removing malvertising infections; those can be VERY hard to eliminate, as they hide really well.
Real-time protection is essential.
I wasn't actively browsing at the time, so it wasn't a page I'd opened. Browser 1 has 4 pages open...Google Drive, Google Sheets for 2 files, and 7zip. None of these have any other elements. Browser 2...2 GMail tabs. One to a forum that has no ads. One to a web comic that doesn't stream ads. 3 others...Tom's home page, and 2 to Food Network. These DO stream ads.
It certainly appears that it was one of these two sites. And these sites are just about as reputable and mainstream as you can get. Nor am I criticizing the sites at all. The takeaway is: DON'T assume any more that ANY web site that serves ads is safe. It is NOT enough to stay on the straight and narrow. Scanning for malware and viruses post facto is too late; we had a spate of people asking for help in removing malvertising infections; those can be VERY hard to eliminate, as they hide really well.
Real-time protection is essential.