Malware Ads Affected “Just a Handful” Says Spotify

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Malware hidden inside a banner advert infected “just a handful” of Spotify users, the Europe-based music streaming service said today.

The attack was hidden inside a graphic banner advert that appeared on Spotify’s free ad-supported service last week.

Although Spotify is still investigating the affair, spokesman Jim Butcher told TechLand: “It’s hard to say exactly how many people were affected, but going by the number who’ve got in touch with us about it, it was just a handful. Less than 50.”

He continued: “It was an unsophisticated attack. Anyone who had any sort of protection running on their system would have been safe.”

An investigation into the attack is ongoing, he said.

“We can’t say right now which advert is was, but we can say it was a banner advert and not an audio one.

“We’re working extremely hard to make sure this doesn’t happen again. We did have stringent policies in place, but we are going to have to look at them again.”

Malware in banner adverts is not new, and many cases have been documented on the web before. The difference here is that the offending code made it into an application environment.