Major sites including New York Times and BBC hit by 'ransomware' malvertising

Adverts hijacked by malicious campaign that demands payment in bitcoin to unlock user computers

A number of major news websites have seen adverts hijacked by a malicious campaign that attempts to install "ransomware" on users computers, according to a warning from security researchers Malwarebytes.

The attack, which was targeted at US users, hit websites including the New York Times, the BBC, AOL and the NFL over the weekend. Combined, the targeted sites have traffic in the billions of visitors.