Several of the world’s most popular pornographic websites were struck by cyberattacks in the past week, according a blog post by the malware hunting software firm Malwarebytes. Sites infected with malicious code included Pornhub and YouPorn, both owned by the Luxembourg-based adult website conglomerate MindGeek. These two sites rack up a combined 800 million visits each month, the post states, citing data from the London-based analytics companySimilarWeb.
This particular type of attack is known as a malicious advertising—or malvertising—campaign. It involves attackers pushing malicious ads through advertising networks, which then appear on websites that display those ads. The worst kinds can compromise users’ machines through “drive-by downloads,” while others can push fake webpages filled with scams, alerts, and pop-ups.