Over the weekend, The New York Times Co.'s site, NYTimes.com, was victimized by what appeared to be a legitimate advertiser — whose ads suddenly attacked site visitors with aggressive adverts that appeared to be virus warnings, the Times reports.

"The culprit masqueraded as a national advertiser and provided seemingly legitimate product advertising for a week. Over the weekend, the ad being served up was switched so that an intrusive message, claiming to be a virus warning from the reader's computer, appeared," explained spokesperson Diane McNulty.

As a result of the infiltration, NYTimes.com has suspended all ads that are inserted automatically by third-party ad placement firms. It also posted warning of the attack.

"We now know how it occurred and have taken steps to prevent a similar situation from happening," stated McNulty.

The NYTimes.com isn't the first to become an unwitting vessel for malware. Right Media has suffered similar attacks, as have Google and MarketingVOX.

Information on what to do if you saw a faux "antivirus" ad, and on avoiding malware in general, is available on NYTimes.com's Gadgetwise blog.