How Malvertising Abuses Real-Time Bidding On Ad Networks

Posted by samzenpus on Monday March 30, 2015 @04:28AM from the rotten-apples dept.

msm1267 writes Dark corners of the Internet harbor trouble. They're supposed to. But what about when Yahoo, CNN.com, TMZ and other busy destination sites heave disaster upon visitors? That's the challenge posed by malvertising, the latest hacker Golden Goose used in cybercrime operations and even in some targeted attacks. Hackers are thriving in this arena because they have found an unwittingly complicit partner in the sundry ad networks to move malicious ads through legitimate processes. Adding gasoline to the raging fire is the abuse of real-time ad bidding, a revolution in the way online ads are sold. RTB enables better ad targeting for advertisers and less unsold inventory for publishers. Hackers can also hitch a ride with RTB and target malicious ads on any site they wish, much the way a legitimate advertiser would use the same system.

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Anonymous advertisers by kurkosdr · 2015-03-30 04:41 · Score: 5, Informative

Ahh... The joys of having anonymous advertisers, even on well-known sites: Not only some of the ads are of questionable legality, but some of them may actually hurt you. THIS is why AdBlock Edge is a security policy, not an adblocking policy. Don't give me the "freeloader" talk. Either host your own ads and be responsible for them, or partner with reliable ad agencies (and maybe I will unblock them).