Google survey finds more than five million users infected with adware

[hotdoge3]

http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/6/8557843/google-adware-survey-ad-injectors-security-malware

Google survey finds more than five million users infected with adware
Ad-injecting malware is one of the most reliable scams on the web.

Once a computer's infected, the virus will drop new ads into any site it visits, sending ad revenue back to the scammers who control it. Users may even know the name of the program, but they're powerless to remove it. According to new research from Google and UC Berkley, the scam is still going strong, despite more than a decade of work to stamp it out.

Released today, the study looked at computers visiting Google sites from June to October of 2014, replaying network requests to see if bogus ads were being injected locally. Over those five months, the system detected 5,339,913 different IP addresses infected with adware, roughly 5.5 percent the total requests. It's a staggering number.

If you clicked on a sponsored ad for a free Firefox download in 2014, odds are it would direct you to a bundle: one free copy of Firefox with a dozen different adware programs like Superfish that would help the advertiser make back their money.

[Penna]

That's interesting.
However, "5,339,913 different IP addresses" over five months are not "more than five million users".
If you have a dynamic IP, your IP may change every few days: in five months time you might end up visiting Google sites with dozens and dozens of different IPs.

[Ivan Blue]

Question:
If I install certain ad-block add -on to my browser, does it mean I won't be able to spot the if my computer has any ad-malware (as the add-on will be blocking most of the non-intrusive ones anyway)?