The prevalence of malvertising – the practice of serving ads infected with malware – is both a fact and a growing problem. But how exactly do watchdogs prove that a nation state is supporting malvertising?
Whenever there’s a sociopolitical or economic crisis, the lowest rung of online marketers finds a way to prey on the vulnerable and disenfranchised. The pending overturn of Roe v. Wade is no different – it’s creating a new class of online audiences that are potential prey, and publishers can stand to take more steps to filter out misleading ads (like donation scams and brand infringement) that harvest and sell users’ personal information.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ad tech industry took steps to freeze Russian-owned media companies out of the advertising ecosystem. But programmatic technology continues to be used by parties on both sides of the conflict as a platform to conduct psychological warfare.
Bad actors are exploiting VPAID to serve malicious auto redirects hidden within video ads. VPAID, which stands for Video Player Ad-Serving Interface, is the old and hoary industry standard for interactive in-stream video ads. First introduced way back in 2012 by the IAB Tech Lab, VPAID created as many problems as it aimed to solve. […]
