According to numerous media sources, security firm Trend Micro has confirmed that a number of webpages on its Japanese and English-language websites were compromised by hackers on Sunday, March 9. This attack was part of a widespread web attack launched on websites across the world.

The attackers planted an invisible malicious IFrame tag into the compromised webpages in order to redirect the users, using JavaScript, to a website located in China that served up malware.

Trend Micro has discovered the problem on Wednesday 12 March and replaced affected pages with a message that says: “This page is temporarily shut down for emergency maintenance”.

It has not yet been revealed how the webpages on Trend Micro’s website were hacked by the attackers; however, all these webpages seem to use Microsoft's Active Server Page (ASP) technology. The attackers probably have exploited a vulnerability or a software bug in ASP to hack the webpages.

Trend Micro reported on its website that web surfers could be infected by the malware, which they named JS_DLOADER.TZE, either by accessing one of the infected webpages or clicking a URL link embedded in the malware’s name. They have recommended that visitors to their site check that their computers are not infected.