(Image source from: Yahoo.com ads hit by malware)

People visiting Yahoo.com in the past week have been infected by malware coming from the site's ads.

According to Netherlands-based online security firm Fox IT, users who clicked on ads on Yahoo site were automatically redirected to sites that “exploited vulnerabilities in Java and installed a host of different malware."

"Clients visiting yahoo.com received advertisements served by ads.yahoo.com," the internet security firm posted on its blog. "Some of the advertisements are malicious."

Fox IT estimates tens of thousands of users were affected per hour.

"Given a typical infection rate of 9%, this would result in around 27,000 infections every hour,” the company said.

Fox IT revealed that the countries most affected by this malware intrusion were Romania, Great Britain and France.

Yahoo has issued a statement about the security breach: 'At Yahoo, we take the safety and privacy of our users seriously,' it said in a statement Saturday night.

Fox IT was unable to locate the attackers but says it was 'clearly financially motivated.'

AW: Suchorita Dutta Choudhury