(cnet) Drudge Report accused of serving malware, again

For the second time in less than six months, visitors to the Drudge Report say they got malware in addition to the Web site’s usual sensational headlines.

Matt Drudge denied that his site was infecting visitors, however it’s likely that the malware is coming from ads delivered by a third-party ad network and not the site itself.
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A spokesperson for the Senate committee said officials were looking at Drudge Report and WhitePages.com as possible sources of the malware that affected Senate computers.

“The Senate Help Desk, in discussing a recent increase in the number of virus infections in Senate computers, mentioned that it might be associated with pop-up ads appearing through certain websites, and they cited DrudgeReport.com and WhitePages.com as possible examples,” the spokesperson said in an e-mail statement. “Our non-partisan systems administrator notified both Majority and Minority staff that this issue had been brought to her attention. It is still not exactly clear where the increase in viruses is coming from, and staff have been advised to be cautious with outside Web sites at all times.”

From Fox’s writeup on the story:

“I suspect somebody was trying to make it look as if there’s a virus there to discourage people from using Drudge,” Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., told CNSNews.com. “Then, somehow, I guess someone in the Capitol got a hold of it and said, yes, we are advising you not to use it.”

Inhofe said Drudge is a “great source” and encouraged people to continue using it.

His words of assurance came after the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, the chamber’s official gatekeeper, said the Drudge Report, a news aggregator, and whitepages.com, a telephone directory site, “are responsible for the many viruses popping up throughout the Senate,” according to an e-mail from the Environment and Public Works Committee obtained by FoxNews.com.

Another e-mail from a separate office warned that staffers who had visited the Drudge Report or White Pages had experienced viruses on their PCs.

“Please avoid using these sites until the Senate resolves this issue,” the e-mail read. “The Senate has been swamped the last couples (sic) days with this issue.”

But Inhofe suggested political motivations were behind the e-mails.

“The liberals, the extremists, they don’t want the information that [Matt Drudge] has because he’s a man of truth and most of them don’t want the truth,” Inhofe said.

Matt Drudge, “man of truth.” :P