What is Malvertising?

     here at Computer Solutions we aim of helping Internet users become a bit more aware of the latest tricks that criminals are using to catch you out. Hopefully, this means you will be a bit safer online.

     Today we take a look at ‘malvertising’.  It presents a significant threat to everyday people, so we wanted to explain what it is and how to protect yourself.

What is it?

     Malvertising is the name we in the security industry give to criminally-controlled advertisements which intentionally infect people and businesses. These can be any ad on any site – often ones which you use as part of your everyday Internet usage. It is a growing problem. Whilst the technology being used in the background is very advanced, the way it presents to the person being infected is simple. To all intents and purposes, the advertisement looks the same as any other, but it has been placed by a criminal.

     Without your knowledge a tiny piece of code hidden deep in the advertisement is making your computer go to criminal servers. These then catalogue details about your computer and its location, before choosing which piece of malware to send you. This doesn’t need a new browser window and you won’t know about it.

     The first sign will often be the malware. Once installed it starts threatening money, logging your bank details or any number of despicable scams.

How do they get there?    

     It’s common to outsource the advertising on websites to third-party specialists. These companies re-sell this space, and provide software which allows people to upload their own advertisement, bidding a certain amount of money to ‘win’ the right for more people to see them.

     This often provides a weak point, and cyber criminals have numerous clever ways of inserting their own malicious advertisements into this self-service platform. Once loaded, all they have to do is set a price per advertisement, to compete with legitimate advertisers, and push it live.

Why is it a threat to me?

     People nowadays are aware of practices that look or feel ‘wrong’ on the Internet, be it odd-looking links, requests to download strange programs or posts on social media which set the alarm bells ringing. The real danger with malvertising is that user judgement isn’t involved at all. People don’t have to click anything, visit a strange website or follow any links.

     Rather, you go to a website you trust (like a news site or similar) and the advertisements are secretly injecting criminal software onto your computer. This means infections can happen just by browsing the morning headlines, or watching a video.

How do I stop it?

     There are a few things people can do to minimize the risk of being caught by malvertising:

• Those reminders to update things like browsers, flash, Java etc? Don’t ignore them.
• Run anti-virus software and keep it up to date.
• There are programs which block advertising that can help

Safe surfing and don’t get caught! 

If you have any questions please leave a comment or send us an email at suncitycomputersolutions@gmail.com

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