AdSecure Report Reveals Malicious Ads Increased During 2020

LOS ANGELES—Online advertising security firm AdSecure has released its 2020 Violations Report, revealing an increase in malicious online ads and cyber crimes last year. “Throughout 2020, malvertisers showed how quick they could be to adapt to new situations in order to extract profit from bad ads,” said AdSecure sales manager Bryan Taylor. “There is opportunity in crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic provided the perfect cover with which to manipulate digital consumers through online ads. From social engineering scams that play off the iconography of major brands, to scareware attacks that took advantage of the massive increase of remote workers and the very fear of the virus itself, bad actors showed no qualms about extracting profit from misery.” For its report, AdSecure analyzed more than one million ad campaigns across multiple regions, devices and browsers for partners during 2020. These findings provide insights into cyber criminal behavior throughout the year: Where they were most prolific, how they delivered their attacks, their malicious weapons of choice and what AdSecure's detections revealed in order to stop and protect end users from malicious ads. The report showed that 42.48 percent of scans detected some form of malware advertising: Compared to 2019, AdSecure detected 4,248 violations (up 57 percent from last year) out of every 10,000 scans in 2020. The main types were adware, malware, scareware, phishing URL, auto downloads and auto redirects. Malvertisers also remained very active during the year. They are cyber criminals who can place threats inside the ad format creative and in the landing page the ad redirects to, then the bad actor also locks the user on the landing page while malware automatically downloads to the victim’s device. AdSecure found 10.01 percent of analyses contained at least three violations and 4.21 percent contained at least two violations, up 3.1 percent and 4.76 percent respectively compared to 2019. During the first lockdown of 2020, malicious attacks grew exponentially, hitting a peak of 116.14 percent March 28. AdSecure detections discovered that some malvertisers used ad creatives using logos of well known brands including the World Health Organization, GooglePlay, Walmart, Amazon and Intermarché for phishing URL and auto download violations. The report also showed that throughout 2020, as lockdowns were lifted then reintroduced, AdSecure tracked which GEOs were the biggest prime targets for malvertising attacks. AdSecure detected that the U.S. was the top GEO for malvertising attacks followed by other English speaking GEOs Canada, U.K. and Australia. Brazil, France and India were also top targets. AdSecure looked at the top five GEOs for violations in 2020 and discovered that both scareware, at 48.84 percent, and browser lockers at 43.63 percent, were by far the most common weapons used by malvertisers. The top GEO for scareware was Israel with a huge 90.24 percent of the country's detections. India had the most browser locker detections at 78.84 percent. Germany had the largest share of malware detections at 5.35 percent. The top country for phishing URL was Brazil at 14.89 percent. “These types of behavior will likely continue into 2021,” Taylor warned. “With more people online than ever before, malicious, misleading and scam ads will continue to challenge the digital advertising industry. In order to stop these ads from harming end users, dissolving consumer trust and weakening the overall ecosystem, digital platforms and publishers need the resolve to tackle the problem head on, and the right tools to eliminate them.” For more information, visit www.AdSecure.com.