Advertisers need to start monitoring ad security

Law enforcement activity and improved security has forced criminals to look for easier targets, so they’ve zeroed in on advertising networks – and advertisers are stuck paying the bill.

Criminals are hacking into the advertising networks themselves to plant malicious ads, hacking into websites to replace legitimate ads with their own, and using botnets to artificially inflate ad views and click-through rates.

The advertising networks themselves aren’t doing enough to police the situation, said Jalal Nasir, CEO of Pixalate.

“The traffic that is coming through malware-ridden websites or machines is up almost three times in 2015 compared to what we’ve seen in 2014,” he said. “Seventy percent of the sellers have been exposed to malware-driven ad fraud. Last year, it was half of that number.”

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