By team Website advertisements have become a major income source for website owners. Advertisers know that high-traffic websites attract a lot of eyeballs, making them a perfect platform for advertisements. But, do you know that some of these seemingly harmless advertisements may be “malvertisements”?
In simple terms, malvertisements are malicious ads deployed by bad actors to steal people’s data. As mentioned above, malvertisements are seemingly harmless and most of the time, people may not be able to differentiate between an advertisement and malvertisements.
In this article, I will explain everything there is to know about malvertisements. Let’s start by analyzing how they work:
How Malvertisements Work?
Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how malvertisements work:
- Bad actors create and hide malicious code inside the ads and distribute them among the advertising networks.
- The advertising networks then display those ads on websites. Sometimes, the advertising networks or website owners may fail to detect the malicious code inside an ad because it’s hidden well.
- As soon as people visit those websites and click on those ads, the malicious code inside the ads is activated.
- Once activated, the malicious code gets inside your device and starts stealing data.
While most malicious ads require you to click on them, some malvertisements have so effective coding that the virus gets activated as soon as you land on the website. Plus, most people may not even know that a malvertisement is stealing their data.
Now, let’s see some common types of malvertising attacks:
Types of Malvertisement:
- Drive-by Downloads: These may be the most dangerous type of malvertisement as the malicious code gets activated without any user’s interaction with the ad.
- Forced Redirects: As the name suggests, the ads forcefully redirect the user to a malicious website or link as soon as they click on it.
- Cryptojacking Scripts: Cryptojacking scripts are not intended to steal user data. Bad actors may use cryptojacking scripts to use the user’s computing power to mine cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum.
- Phishing Ads: Bad actors may create fake ads of legitimate businesses and trick people into clicking on them. Once clicked, these ads may lead users to a malicious website or link and again trick them into revealing sensitive information.
- Scareware: This type of malvertisement creates a fake alert that the user’s system is infected with a virus. Once this happens, scareware offers their software (often malicious and free to download) to users so they get rid of viruses.
- Exploit Kits: This type of malvertisement is often embedded in or linked to malicious ads and targets users without their knowledge. The exploit kits explore and exploit the loopholes in browsers, plugins, or applications to install a virus on a user’s device.
How to Identify a Malvertisement?
Spotting a malvertisement is possible because there are a few distinctive differences between a genuine ad and a malvertisement. Now, let’s see how you can spot a malvertisement:
- Malvertisements often contain spelling mistakes, which is not expected from reputable corporations.
- Malvertisements may display unrealistically low prices or unbelievable cures or remedies for different issues.
- Malvertisements may use celebrities’ scandals for advertisement, which is an unusual way of advertising.
- Malvertisements may not relate to your recent browsing history about products or services.
How to Stay Safe from Malvertisement?
Staying safe from malvertisement is very much possible and the following tips can help:
- Secure Internet Connection:
The internet is the first line of defense when it comes to countering malware and viruses. An ideal internet connection should inform, identify, or block malicious websites with malvertisements.
Luckily, my internet service provider (ISP), Spectrum provides me with a secure connection that I can trust. It’s because, with all Spectrum Internet plans, you get free access to their security suite which detects viruses and blocks them instantly. So, your aim should be to subscribe to an ISP like Spectrum that offers top-notch security features.
- Reliable Adblockers:
Adblockers are another way you can secure your data from malvertisements. Essentially, reliable ad blockers directly attack the connection between a website and ad servers. Once it’s done, the website is not able to fetch ad data from the ads’ server and consequently, the ads do not load.
- Anti-Virus Software:
An anti-virus software can instantly inform you when a virus or malware tries to enter your device. Plus, users may also run frequent security checks with anti-virus software. A quality anti-virus software (often the paid ones) may easily identify and delete viruses or malware inside a device that users might not know of.
- Device Update:
Bad actors may get more creative and use sophisticated methods to attack user’s devices. Hence, the manufacturers of such devices frequently roll out updates which may include bug fixes or security patches.
By frequently updating the devices, you can ensure that your device has the latest and strongest security protocols to counter viruses and malware.
Frequently Asked Questions:
What are the major examples of malvertising campaigns?
KS Clean and RoughTed are some of the most famous and dangerous malvertising campaigns.
Is malvertisement different from adware?
The primary difference between the two is that malvertisement contains malware while adware does not contain any malware.
Why do legitimate websites display malvertisements?
Like users, legitimate websites may fail to identify a malvertisement because the bad actors perfectly hide the malicious code inside an ad.
Blitz