NBC’s Website Hacked and Infected

NBC became the latest victim of a hack as some experts flagged the website and other related web pages. According to the reports, the website had not only been hacked but infected with malware. The technicians at the website were able to rectify the situation without too much damage being caused. People who were trying to visit NBC.com were redirected to different websites each of which had malware. Accessing the website downloaded the malware to the user’s computer.

The internet browsers were also quick to react to the situation and they blocked the website as well as other pages promptly. Due to their prompt reaction to the problem, no user information or data was compromised or breached. Google Chrome was the first to do so and they cleared the website soon after. Facebook also took the same action, blocking NBC.com. Related websites that remained unaffected by the hack included NBCNews.com and TODAY.com.

According to software experts, the malware affecting the NBC website and its related properties was Citadel Trojan. This was found to be the malware present on the official website of the network as well as on the website for The Late Night with Jimmy Fallon among others. Thankfully, the breach was discovered right away and it only took the technicians 15 minutes to clear the website of it. The minimal downtime is an achievement for the technical team at NBC as they prevented any major problems.

Over the past few days, several major brands have been the targets of hackers, mostly on the social networking website Twitter. This is the first time during this time that the official website of a company has been hacked and infected with malware. Though the NBC website is safe now, any users who may have received the malware from the website would have to get it removed or their systems might get damaged considerably.

As for the minds behind the hack, the experts believed that the same group has attacked NBC.com as the one responsible for sending fake emails from Verizon and Facebook. They send redirect links to the users and when they open the email and click on them, they are led to a malware infected webpage which gets downloaded to their computer. While there is no certainty regarding who hacked NBC.com, the problem has been taken care of for the time being. Any users affected might have to seek help too.

[Images via sucuri & dailycollegian]