Microsoft Lawsuit Shows Malicious Advertising a Growing Issue
Legal Events
Microsoft announced on Sept. 18 that it has filed lawsuits against five entities that it claims have been spreading "malvertising," or online advertising used to port malware onto end users' machines. Microsoft is asking the court to shut down those entities, saying that they used Microsoft’s AdManager service, which lets Website owners manage their own advertising inventory, to launch their attacks.
The lawsuits are just the latest leveled by Microsoft against spreaders of malicious code. Earlier in the summer, Microsoft’s Internet Safety Enforcement Team filed a civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Western Washington against what they described as a massive click-fraud scheme. In that case, the accused individuals had developed click-fraud attacks against online advertisements for auto insurance and World of Warcraft.
In 2009, Microsoft also targeted legal action against a party, Funmobile, which it accused of "spimming," or spreading links to possibly malicious software through instant messaging. Hong Kong-based Funmobile had apparently been sending instant messages to thousands of Windows Live Messenger users since March 2009.
The Sept. 18 filings represent yet another front in the battle.
"Our filings in King County Superior Court in Seattle outline how we believe the defendants operated," Tim Cranton, Microsoft’s associate general counsel, wrote in an official Microsoft blog posting on Sept. 1. "In general, malvertising works by camouflaging malicious code as harmless online advertisements. These ads then lead to harmful or deceptive content."
Microsoft’s court filings aim at entities using the business names "Soft Solutions," "Direct Ad," "qiweroqw.com," "ITmeter INC" and "ote2008.info," which Redmond says used malvertising to spread malware and scareware.
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Does a car or truck accident count as a work injury?
If an employee is injured in a car crash while on the job, they are eligible to receive workers’ compensation benefits. “On the job” injuries are not limited to accidents and injuries that happen inside the workplace, they may also include injuries suffered away from an employee’s place of work while performing a job-related task, such as making a delivery or traveling to a client meeting.
Regular commutes to and from work don’t usually count. If you get into an accident on your way in on a regular workday, it’s probably not considered a work injury for the purposes of workers’ compensation.
If you drive around as part of your job, an injury on the road or loading/unloading accident is likely a work injury. If you don’t typically drive around for work but are required to drive for the benefit of your employer, that would be a work injury in many cases.
If you are out of town for work, pretty much any driving would count as work related. For traveling employees, any accidents or injuries that happen on a work trip, even while not technically working, can be considered a work injury. The reason is because you wouldn’t be in that town in the first place, had you not been on a work trip.
Workers’ compensation claims for truck drivers, traveling employees and work-related injuries that occur away from the job site can be challenging and complex. At Krol, Bongiorno & Given, we understand that many families depend on the income of an injured worker, and we are proud of our record protecting the injured and disabled. We have handled well over 30,000 claims for injured workers throughout the state of Illinois.