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Malvertising Up By Over 200%

Posted by samzenpus on from the protect-ya-neck dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Online Trust Alliance (OTA) Executive Director and President Craig Spiezle testified before the U.S. Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, outlining the risks of malicious advertising, and possible solutions to stem the rising tide. According to OTA research, malvertising increased by over 200% in 2013 to over 209,000 incidents, generating over 12.4 billion malicious ad impressions. The threats are significant, warns the Seattle-based non-profit—with the majority of malicious ads infecting users' computers via 'drive by downloads,' which occur when a user innocently visits a web site, with no interaction or clicking required."

3 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. It's one of many reasons why Adblocking is moral by metrix007 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The others being performance and functionality related. I don't like ad's due to the security risk, and they can slow down my machine and make it very fucking hard to see the article.

    If your site has harmless ad's, that is one thing.

    On the other hand, if your site can only survive by being paid for with ads, you need a new business model.

    --
    If you ignore ACs because they are anonymous - you're an idiot.
  2. Re:It's one of many reasons why Adblocking is mora by Threni · · Score: 5, Insightful

    > On the other hand, if your site can only survive by being paid for with ads, you need
    > a new business model.

    Like Slashdot, you mean? Or is this site supported by the Bandwidth Pixies?

  3. Too many resellers by Animats · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Too many web sites which run ads are buying them through a chain of multiple resellers. Under current law, the web site running the ad can usually disclaim responsibility for hostile ads. That may change. The article is about testimony before the U.S. Senate's committee on homeland security.

    The site that displays the ads should be held responsible. Sites which run ads would then need to protect themselves by legal and technical means. For example, if you run ads on your site, your contract with the advertising provider should provide that they will indemify and defend you should a bad ad get through.