A few weeks ago, a reader told me that my site was crashing their browser.

I checked it out, and found no problems, and so I concluded that it was something that Google™ Adsense™ was serving.

Well, it appears that, on occasion, Google™ Adsense™ serving a bit more than just ads, as Avast has discovered that the large ad networks have occasionally served up malware:

Malware that exploits holes in popular applications is being delivered by big ad delivery platforms including those run by Yahoo, Fox, and Google, according to Prague-based antivirus firm Avast.

Viruses and other malware were found to be lurking in ads last year on high-profile sites like The New York Times and conservative news aggregator Drudge Report.com, and this year on Drudge, TechCrunch and WhitePages.com. The practice has been dubbed “malvertising.”

Now, researchers at Avast are pointing fingers at some large ad delivery platforms including Yahoo’s Yield Manager and Fox Audience Network’s Fimserve.com, which together cover more than 50 percent of online ads, and to a much smaller degree Google’s DoubleClick. In addition, some of the malicious ads ended up on Yahoo and Google sites, Avast claims.

Google™ Adsense™ is not mentioned, just DoubleClick, though there are ties between the two, since Google™ owns Double Click, and the worst offenders honors go to Yahoo and Fox.

In any case, please keep your spyware and virus filters up to date.

Please note: once again, that I do not vet, nor do I endorse any ad that appears on my site, and I reserve the right to mock both the ads that appear on my site, as well as the advertisers.

Also, please note, this should be in no way construed as an inducement or a request for my reader(s) to click on any ad that they would not otherwise be inclined to investigate further. This would be a violation of the terms of service for Google^™ Adsense^™.