A naukri.com initiative
Wired
1M
13
Image Credit: Wired
Malicious Ads in Search Results Are Driving New Generations of Scams
- Malwarebytes reports that scammers mainly from South and Southeast Asia are continuing to use malicious ads in search results to scam victims, with instances of malvertising increasing at a high rate from July to September 2021. Malvertising is a key method used by cybercriminals and is often used in phishing attacks, credit card scams and malware distribution and has even been incorporated into pig butchering and other investment and romance scams
- Research by Malwarebytes indicates that 77% of advertising accounts used for malvertising are only used once.
- Malvertising is difficult to detect and prevalent in search results that gains legitimacy simply by appearing alongside legitimate search results.
- Search engines like Google have pledged to vet advertising content and detect malvertising. Despite their efforts, attackers continue to develop circumvention methods, and Google removed 5.5 billion ads and suspended 12.7 million advertiser accounts in 2020 alone.
- Criminals can get the most for their money when buying ads for more unique searches where they can dominate the ad space and get to the top of the results more organically. However, malicious ads also run frequently against searches such as Google, Walmart, Disney+, Slack, Lowe’s, and Apple.
- Malwarebytes has to invest heavily in using its analytical skills in purchasing search engine ads just to avoid malvertising for its own brand.
- Google regularly updates its policies and takes down misleading and fraudulent ads; however, the malicious ad activity keeps growing and evolving.
- Malvertising is highly prevalent in search results, especially on mobile screens where legitimate and malicious results appear side by side.
- Sophos’ researches indicate that scammers are using ad delivery networks and can redirect the URL after the ad is paid for.
- Mostly originating from South and Southeast Asia, cybercriminals still use malvertising as a key technique to scam unsuspecting victims.
Read Full Article
Like
For uninterrupted reading, download the app