Looks like Microsoft has had enough of unauthorized advertisements and on Thursday cracked the whip on Thursday by filing five lawsuits against agencies posting advertisements loaded with malicious codes. Microsoft Associate General Counsel Tim Cranton stated in his blog that the lawsuits were filed in King County Superior Court in Seattle against the defendants accusing them of  disguising malicious codes as ordinary online advertisements, which are now termed as a ‘malvertisments’. Microsoft also admitted that they are not aware of the individuals who are behind theses exploits, but are hell- bent on putting an end to it.

Just a few days ago, the New York Times website was a victim to a rogue advertisement that told the web user that their computer was infected with a virus and redirected to a site that offered antivirus downloads.

However, with insufficient information in hand, about the individuals behind these attacks, it is not possible to link the Microsoft attacks to the mal-ad on the NY Times website. Cranton also explained that the importance of the lawsuit to save advertising platforms, because they are the ones who pay to keep the internet up and running. It pays for free online services like facebook, MSN, windows live, yahoo and so on. So any kind of ad abuse poses a major threat to the industry and all consumers alike.

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