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Malware isn’t just for email anymore. Sure, maybe you might worry about getting a virus if you’re illegally downloading the latest season of House of Cards to avoid a Netflix subscription, but that website looks weird to begin with, right? You certainly wouldn’t worry about well-known, reputable sites like The New York Times, Yahoo, or Answers.com. Except you should, because they all have been victims of malvertising.

So what is malvertising? It’s a malware-infected advertisement placed on a reputable site, like the Huffington Post. While the majority of reputable sites have fortified firewalls in place to protect their websites, they don’t have as much control over their advertisers’ sites. So if an advertiser is a little lax in their Web security department, a hacker can infect the website with malware. Or, the hacker can buy an advertisement for fairly cheap that is pre-loaded with malware. So then when you click on an advertisement, like “Top ten ways to burn fat,” your computer is infected with malware that can steal information off of your hard drive and/or network, like customers’ banking information and employees’ HR files, or can lock your computer until a ransom is paid to the hacker.

So should you stop clicking on interesting advertisements on these sites? Not necessarily. Most advertisers are reputable, like H&R Block and even AppRiver. However, you can protect your business by purchasing Web security.

SecureSurf™, AppRiver’s signature cloud-based Web Protection solution protects your business from malicious websites, like that one that contained the corrupted House of Cards, and malicious sub sites, like malvertisements on your favorite online magazine. If the website you visited had a malvertisement on it, SecureSurf™ would simply block the offending ad while allowing you to look at the valid content. The best part? You can try SecureSurf™ risk-free for 30 days.