Malvertising

Piracy to Ads to Ransomware: Investigation Finds $121 Million in Dangerous Malicious Ads on Piracy Sites Designed to Trick Users into Infecting Their Devices

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, September 15, 2022

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Visitors to piracy sites are bombarded with malicious ads that use scare tactics to trick them into downloading malware, including ransomware that takes over files to force victims to pay to regain access, a joint investigation by the Digital Citizens Alliance, White Bullet, and Unit 221B has found. The investigation also found that these malicious ads, called malvertising, are often enabled by ad intermediary companies that promote scare tactics and other dubious means to trick or entice users to click on dangerous ads.

Key Points: 
  • The investigation also found that these malicious ads, called malvertising, are often enabled by ad intermediary companies that promote scare tactics and other dubious means to trick or entice users to click on dangerous ads.
  • Digital Citizens, piracy advertising expert White Bullet, and cybersecurity firm Unit 221B undertook a months-long investigation that analyzed thousands of piracy sites, including well-known platforms such as Fmovies[.
  • Visitors to piracy sites faced an estimated 321 million ads designed to harm them.
  • Piracy services seek to make as much money as possible whether from legitimate but misplaced ads or from malicious actors.

Malvertising Violation Rate at Highest Level in Two Years, According to Confiant 2022 H1 Report

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, September 7, 2022

NEW YORK, Sept. 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Confiant, a cybersecurity provider specialized in detecting and stopping threats that leverage advertising technology infrastructure, published the 2022 H1 edition of its industry benchmark report, Malvertising & Ad Quality Index (MAQ). This is the sixteenth report in the series and the first in a semi-annual format. It summarizes the state of ad quality, malvertising and consent compliance in the global digital ad industry in the first half of 2022. Confiant analyzed a sample of more than 400 billion advertising impressions monitored in real time from January 1 to June 30, 2022, across tens of thousands of premium websites and apps to compile the MAQ index.

Key Points: 
  • Malvertising cybersecurity and threat intelligence provider, publishes semi-annual MAQ report
    Key highlights of H1 2022 Malvertising Ad Quality Index:
    Overall malvertising violation rate reached its highest level since early 2020.
  • NEW YORK, Sept. 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Confiant, a cybersecurity provider specialized in detecting and stopping threats that leverage advertising technology infrastructure, published the 2022 H1 edition of its industry benchmark report, Malvertising & Ad Quality Index (MAQ).
  • This report identifies that during H1 2022 the overall malvertising violation rate hit its highest level since early in 2020, with more than one in every 500 programmatic ad impressions being an attack.
  • "This MAQ report confirms that the ad tech industry is seeing the highest rate of malvertising since 2020.

Google Ad Manager slips in Ad Security Second Quarter in a Row says latest report from Confiant

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, September 15, 2021

For the second quarter in a row, Google Ad Manager underperformed in ad security, ranking 11th of 12 tracked SSPs.

Key Points: 
  • For the second quarter in a row, Google Ad Manager underperformed in ad security, ranking 11th of 12 tracked SSPs.
  • A slip of this kind could have a significant impact on overall ad security given the large volume of ad traffic handled by the internet giant.
  • While Ad Manager underperformed, the report shows Google's Chrome browser outperformed it's closest browser competitors, Firefox and Safari.
  • Confiant first introduced our quarterly report, originally known as the Demand Quality Report, in September 2018, as the industry's first benchmark report.

IAB Tech Lab Releases New Buy-side Transparency Specifications for Public Comment

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, March 30, 2021

NEW YORK, March 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --IAB Tech Lab, the digital advertising technical standards-setting body, released today buyers.json and DemandChain Object specifications for a 30-day public comment period, which begins today and lasts until April 30, 2021.

Key Points: 
  • NEW YORK, March 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --IAB Tech Lab, the digital advertising technical standards-setting body, released today buyers.json and DemandChain Object specifications for a 30-day public comment period, which begins today and lasts until April 30, 2021.
  • As part of a broader effort to eliminate malvertising and other ad quality issues from the digital advertising ecosystem, these buy-side transparency specifications enable sellers to identify who is buying their inventory.
  • buyers.json enables advertising systems to publicly declare the buyers they represent, and DemandChain Object provides transparency around every entity involved in a specific transaction.
  • "Lack of transparency into buyer identity is a critical problem for sellers to ensure that advertising is brand safe and malware-free," said Amit Shetty, Vice President, Programmatic Standards and Partnerships, IAB Tech Lab.

TAG/BSI Survey Finds Consumers Savvy About Brand Safety Issues

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, December 15, 2020

"The past year has been a witches' brew of toxic brand safety challenges across public health, economic, and political topics, and happily this survey showed the success of our industry's efforts to set higher standards and professionalize the field of brand safety," said Mike Zaneis, CEO of the TAG and co-founder of BSI.

Key Points: 
  • "The past year has been a witches' brew of toxic brand safety challenges across public health, economic, and political topics, and happily this survey showed the success of our industry's efforts to set higher standards and professionalize the field of brand safety," said Mike Zaneis, CEO of the TAG and co-founder of BSI.
  • Consumers define brand safety broadly, including ad-related piracy and malware, with more than half saying that advertisers should prevent their ads from running near stolen/pirated movies or TV shows (54%) and unsafe or hacked/unsafe websites (66%).
  • "Brand safety is an issue of consumer perception, and this survey highlighted how nuanced consumers have become in their evaluation of brand risks," said Neal Thurman, co-founder of BSI.
  • Similarly, consumers looked beyond traditional content issues to include other risks like malvertising and digital piracy in their evaluation of brand safety."

Confiant Hires PCH exec Steve Rubinstein for COO role

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, December 3, 2020

NEW YORK, Dec. 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- First-to-market creative verification, ad blocking and malvertising detection solution Confiant, has hired Steve Rubinstein, to lead operations of the fast-growing start-up.

Key Points: 
  • NEW YORK, Dec. 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- First-to-market creative verification, ad blocking and malvertising detection solution Confiant, has hired Steve Rubinstein, to lead operations of the fast-growing start-up.
  • "We are thrilled to have Steve join the team," stated Jerome Dangu, CTO and co-founder of Confiant.
  • Formerly Head of Business Operations for PCH, Rubinstein brings more than 25 years of experience in operations, development and engineering.
  • In addition to growing the role of COO, Confiant has elevated Jason March to Senior Vice President of Sales, and brought in Morgan Martins as Head of Marketing.

Addressing the Malvertising Trend of Malicious Cloned Sites, GeoEdge is the 1st Ad Security Solution to Block Ads leading to Cloned Sites to Protect Publishers & Users

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, October 6, 2020

Malicious advertisers can buy a cloned website template for a few dollars and use IP addresses to more effectively target users.

Key Points: 
  • Malicious advertisers can buy a cloned website template for a few dollars and use IP addresses to more effectively target users.
  • To address the shift to content-driven malvertising, GeoEdge becomes the first ad security solution to offer publishers and platforms a way to block serving any ad leading to a landing page from a malicious cloned website in real-time.
  • By blocking these ads leading to cloned websites, GeoEdge eliminates the threat of malicious ad attacks before a user is exposed to the ad.
  • Leading publishers, ad platforms, exchanges, and networks rely on GeoEdge's automated ad verification solutions to monitor and protect their ad inventory without sacrificing revenue.

Morphixx Malvertising Scam Attacks US, Japan & Europe in a Global Malicious Ad Campaign to Steal Credit Card Numbers & Generate $5 - 10 Billion in Credit Card Charges

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, September 9, 2020

This has enticed multinational cybercriminal organizations to invest resources to develop and implement digital advertising-based credit card scams.

Key Points: 
  • This has enticed multinational cybercriminal organizations to invest resources to develop and implement digital advertising-based credit card scams.
  • The global nature and sophistication of the Morphixx malvertising attacks indicate that the perpetrators aren't teens in their basement.
  • And the increased digitization of payments will undoubtedly be met with a significant increase in malvertising attacks involving payment solutions.
  • On June 23rd, the Morphixx campaign ads were first noticed in Europe, in low volumes, and without the malicious payload.

Escalated.io Launches Anti-Malvertising Service to Stop Malicious Ads in Real Time

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, July 22, 2020

CARMEL, Ind., July 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Escalated.io ( https://escalated.io/anti-malvertising.html ) recently announced the launch of its latest subscription-based software solution intended to stop malicious online ads (malvertising).

Key Points: 
  • CARMEL, Ind., July 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Escalated.io ( https://escalated.io/anti-malvertising.html ) recently announced the launch of its latest subscription-based software solution intended to stop malicious online ads (malvertising).
  • "Malvertising is an absolutely massive problem felt by every player in ad tech at this point," said Kyle Smith, Escalated CEO.
  • The attacks are perfectly camouflaged because malvertisers pretend to be real advertisers, and they know exactly what they're doing.
  • Escalated provides a single-pixel solution that blocks malicious ads as they happen, while offering transparent reporting that pinpoints and identifies the culprit.

Cyberinc Browser Isolation Platform Protects Remote Workers from Phishing, Ransomware and Malware, Helping Organizations Maintain Business Continuity

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, May 28, 2020

The Isla platform enables businesses to provide security for remote employees against prominent threats like malvertising, phishing, credential theft and ransomware , and maintain business continuity without negatively impacting the employee experience.

Key Points: 
  • The Isla platform enables businesses to provide security for remote employees against prominent threats like malvertising, phishing, credential theft and ransomware , and maintain business continuity without negatively impacting the employee experience.
  • Traditional technologies, such as VPNs, were originally intended for providing secure remote access to on-premise data centers but provide minimal value with growing cloud adoption and emerging remote workforce models.
  • For more information and to sign up for Cyberinc's free offer of the Isla platform, visit http://isla.cyberinc.com/promo-lp.html .
  • This puts organizations and their critical assets at tremendous risk," said Samir Shah, CEO of Cyberinc.