How can internet sites cause viruses?
This may be the result of using Internet Explorer with ‘active scripting’ enabled. [This is that setting: IE> Tools> Internet Options> Advanced> Security: Allow active content to run files on my computer] This setting allows a webpage to install software to your system, which may or may not be malicious; you have no way of knowing. In effect, it’s an “Open Door” policy, and subjects you to ‘Drive By installs’, ‘Opacity based attacks’, and so on. Compromised websites (from whatever source) have ‘assets’ (different elements that make up the requested page); some 1st party; some 3rd party. Whenever a page is displayed, the user’s web browser will interpret the page, discover the URL address of the asset server, and request that asset. This could be an image, flash animation, video, text, or other resource from the third-party server. Since browsers run ‘on the fly’, making no distinction between text and active scripting, malware (remote code execution) can be deployed into the receiving
