Dark Side of Google – Ad Fraud
TL;DR Google is the biggest company in the world and makes 90% of its money from online ads. Google’s ad revenues are based on commissions it receives from ad buys on its system. When an advertiser buys an ad impression from some site through Google, the publisher...
WTF is adToken?! A Primer to Ad Network 2.0 Schemes
"An ad network, a surveillance capitalism lobby, an ad fraud consultant, and an ICO factory walks into a bar..." TL;DR adToken is the hook in a pitch that we call "Adnetwork 2.0". It's the first of a kind, but not in an exciting or positive sense. Actually, it just...
Internet on Ad Fraud – Prelude
TL;DR We conducted a scan of 50,000 websites, where we picked the sites based on how much ad inventory the site is making available in ad exchanges. I feel confident to conclude that both the quality of ad inventory, and the sites that make the inventory available...
Anti Ad Fraud Company’s Guide to Countering Facepalm
TL;DR What we have in ad fraud research, is companies that are not equipped or incentivized to invest in to serious research, and media that does not know what to believe and what to disregard. Once a company grows to a certain size, it becomes almost impossible for...
Anti Ad Fraud Company’s Guide to Countering Facepalm
TL;DR What we have in ad fraud research, is companies that are not equipped or incentivized to invest in to serious research, and media that does not know what to believe and what to disregard. Once a company grows to a certain size, it becomes almost impossible for...
If DDoS attacks trigger ads, does it mean the attacker is the target?
But wait, if DDoS attacks can trigger ads on the target site, and sites make money from ads (and mostly only ads), whose the target? Can DDoS attacks trigger ads? TL;DR Yes. All application / layer-7 DDoS attacks trigger ads on the target site by default. The"visits"...
Busting Malvertising Myths – How Malware Enters the Online Advertising Supply-Chain
In the light of recent high profile malvertising attacks, the adtech industry is finding itself as a center of attention in respect to the ongoing malware epidemic. In this article we will cover how in fact it is the industry itself that to some extent is causing...
Online Anonymity for Researchers – The Simple Edition
Here is a simple guideline for researchers to establish a basic level of online anonymity for the purpose of disconnecting identity and physical location from research activity. What do you need? a prepaid credit card an anonymous prepaid sim card What level of...
DIRECT_BUY_POISONING: How Data Spam Leaves Transactions Vulnerable to Fraud
Audience data, both 1st and 3rd-party, have so far not been discussed as a concern in the fight against ad fraud. Because of this, now there are serious misonceptions about what might be effective as a method for reducing exposure to ad fraud. Both publishers and ad...
Internet on Ad Fraud – Prelude
TL;DR We conducted a scan of 50,000 websites, where we picked the sites based on how much ad inventory the site is making available in ad exchanges. I feel confident to conclude that both the quality of ad inventory, and the sites that make the inventory available...
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