…err, Cover Your Digital Assets, that is. Last year bore witness to an alarming growth in ad industry malware: 30% increase in malicious events compared to 2020. Despite increased vigilance and adoption of creative blockers, the amount of malware propagating in the digital advertising ecosystem continues to get worse. While no one style of malware stood out during 2021, the year was a smorgasbord of digital malevolency across a range of attack vectors:
- 1.7X growth in redirects between January and October
- Expansion of clickbait-based malware, including a 23% increase in FizzCore
- 63% surge in scam ads, which made up a third of malware detected
- 2.2X hike in compromised landing pages through July, with many legit small and medium advertisers unaware of hacked sites
- 4X increase in blocked malvertising incidents via Media Filter
Check out the quick, 30-minute webinar or download the full report
The session dives into 7 key trends that are continuing in 2022: Cloaking, rapid Domain Cycling, Scams, testing for vulnerabilities, compromised Landing Pages, “asset-less” campaigns, and Zombie code.
With advertiser spend increasing at a higher rate in channels like connected TV and private marketplaces, the open programmatic marketplace is ceding more and more territory to malvertisers. Balancing revenue efforts and consumer safety will only become more difficult as malvertising proliferates. But platforms and publishers that recognize their responsibility to consumers and the overarching threat of malware are prepared to face the challenge and thrive.
