Spotify says sorry for malware ad payload

Spotify has apologised for an embarrassing incident whereby the streaming music platform served up a dose of malware via its third-party adverts on the free player.

Users running Spotify Free or Open in the UK, Sweden, France and Spain were potentially hit by the virus which was hidden in an advert that ran on Thursday and Friday of last week.

When discovered, Spotify says it immediately disabled all advertising until the problem was identified and the malware laced commercial was removed.

According to Websense, the malicious ad used the Blackhole Exploit Kit to infect users with a fake anti-virus application. Spotify stated that anyone with anti-virus software installed would have been protected from infection.

Spotify wrote: “We sincerely apologise to any users affected. We’ll continue working hard to ensure this does not happen again and that our users enjoy Spotify securely and in confidence.”

“If you suspect that you were affected, we suggest you to read the information provided on this link.”