NBC.com back online after getting hacked

NBC.com is back online after getting hacked during the week. The hack involved malware that was in the form of a trojan.

In recent weeks many websites have been the target of cyberattacks and now NBC can be added to the list. Earlier this week NBC.com was the latest victim in a cyberattack, along with some of its related websites, such as "Jay Leno's Garage." The website had been taken offline for several hours after getting hacked. The NBC sites were infected with the Citadel Trojan, a form of malware that steals sensitive information. Users that visited the site could have potentially downloaded malware without knowing. Google and Facebook had blocked the link once the malicious attack was detected, CNET reported. "The campaign appears to have been launched by the same gang of cybercriminals that's also been recently involved in impersonating Facebook Inc. and Verizon Wireless, in an attempt to trick their users/customers into clicking on links found in hundreds of thousands of spamvertised emails pretending to come from the companies," security researcher Dancho Danchev wrote in a blog post. Danchev's blog post outlined the NBC exploit in detail. According to media reports, NBC's website is back online after the exploit. The Huffington Post reported an NBC spokeswoman said that it was not certain how long the website had "been potentially spreading malware", but that the site was cleaned by 4 p.m. on Thursday and any site visitors were now "safe". NBC says no user information was compromised in this week's cyber-attack. Traditionally the Citadel Trojan has targeted financial institutions, however, earlier in February several security articles noted that other industries were being targeted with this type of malware as well.