Compared to murder, malware isn’t so bad. It’s not exactly good, though, and in a development that can’t please Google, it’s been connected to DoubleClick.
Don’t think that DoubleClick’s employees are locked away in some dark room, creating pop-ups and backdoors – that’s not at all the case. Instead, they supplied ads from a German company to sites like CNN and The Economist, and those ads used pop-ups to promote unnecessary security software.
DoubleClick apparently didn’t mean to get involved in this, though, and is taking steps to extricate itself. “DoubleClick officials told eWEEK that they have recently implemented a security monitoring system to catch and disable a new strain of malware that has spread over the past several months,” according to Lisa Vaas. “This system has already captured and disabled about 100 ads . . .”
Google’s acquisition plans are far too involved for this event to derail them, so there aren’t really any worries on that front. Still, the incident has tarnished DoubleClick’s image, and if the acquisition ever goes through, will become something that Google should address.
Google’s not known for pinching pennies, but this could also have the company’s officials wondering if an offer of less than $3.1 billion would have been enough to win DoubleClick.
