The Bot Baseline Fraud in Digital Advertising

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AD INJECTION ATTACKS USERS, HARMSPUBLISHERS, AND DEFRAUDS ADVERTISERSAd injection attackers use the same mechanisms that cybercriminals use to rob online banks. Payment and impression data forinjected ad inventory flow to third parties which have no affiliation with the sites on which the ads are displayed. Botnet controllerswho inject ads are able to generate enormous revenues using content and brands they did not build or maintain.Ad InjectionA man-in-the-browser attack onpublishers, advertisers, and users inwhich ads are forced onto a website,often displacing the initial web pagecontent or overlaying on top of existingcontent or adsTrue DomainTechnology that identifies the actualdomain on which an ad displays ratherthan the domain reported by thead server which can be falsifiedWe did not set out to detect ad injection in this study. However, using White Ops’ truedomain detection technology, we found significant evidence of ads running on siteswhich are well known as user-funded or subscription-based sites that do not permitads. These injected ads were unsanctioned by the publishers. The ads were displayedusing malware illicitly installed on residential computers.Victims of malware-driven ad injection inadvertently expose private information.Malware-driven ad injection software on the victim’s computer allows potentiallymalicious, unknown actors to gain access to personally identifiable information (PII),including browsing history, interests, and financial information.Over 500,000 Ads Were Injected Dailyat One Publisher500,000Per DayCASE STUDYPost-study analysis showed that a single publisher was the victim of aminimum of 500,000 injected ads per day through the duration of the study.42
AD INJECTIONDEGRADES THEQUALITY OFTHE INTERNETThe degradation of the user’sbrowsing experience due toad injection includes:Websites with injected ads load more slowly.Too many ads on the page can overwhelmthe user.Injected ads are often highly intrusive anddistracting and may break the intendedfunctionality of the displayed website.Advertisers and publishers do not choose to injectads into a site. The owner of the ad injection malwareaccepts payment for unsanctioned media that couldpotentially damage both the advertiser’s andpublisher’s reputation and deplete the advertiser’sdigital ad inventory budget.Ad injection also devalues all authentic advertisingrunning on the site.AD INJECTIONDESTROYSLEGITIMATEAD INVENTORYAdvertisers and publishers can help preventad injection by limiting the use of sourced traffic,continuously monitoring sourced traffic, and requiringsuppliers (including DSPs) to demonstrate that theirtraffic does not include injected ads.43
Page 1 and 2: The Bot Baseline:Fraud in DigitalAd
Page 3 and 4: Special Thanks to the FollowingANA
Page 5 and 6: ABOUT THE STUDY
Page 7 and 8: BOTS ARE EVERYWHERE...BUT NOT IN EQ
Page 9 and 10: HOW WE USED THE DATAThis study is a
Page 11 and 12: BOTS WERE IN EVERY KINDOF CAMPAIGN
Page 13 and 14: BOT FRAUD VARIES OVER TIMENot all b
Page 15 and 16: BOT TRAFFIC VARIES BY DOMAIN CATEGO
Page 17 and 18: SOURCING TRAFFIC INCREASESBOT LEVEL
Page 19 and 20: BOTS GET INTO PREMIUM BUYSSignifica
Page 21 and 22: TO REDUCE BOTS IN PREMIUM CAMPAIGNS
Page 23 and 24: BOTS ARE BUILT TO FOOL ALL STAKEHOL
Page 25 and 26: ADWARE: NOT ALL ATTACKS ARE THE SAM
Page 27 and 28: BOTNET CONTROLLERS HIJACK EVERYDAYU
Page 29 and 30: BOTS FAKED ALL OF THE ENGAGEMENT AN
Page 31 and 32: BOTS ARE GETTING TARGETED AND RETAR
Page 33 and 34: HOW BOTSUPPLIERS GETAWAY WITH IT:EV
Page 35 and 36: BOT SUPPLIERS ACTIVELY DISGUISE BOT
Page 37 and 38: SITES THAT ONLYA BOT COULDLOVE37
Page 39 and 40: BOT SUPPLIERS ARE WATCHING YOUBot t
Page 41: WHEN PUBLISHERSARE VICTIMS TOO:AD I
Page 45 and 46: BOTNET OPERATORS ARE ALREADYDEFEATI
Page 47 and 48: Action Plan for All StakeholdersCre
Page 49 and 50: Action Plan for Buyers(Continued)Ap
Page 51 and 52: Who is your real audience:BOB SMITH
Page 53 and 54: Appendix AGlossary of Terms (Contin
Page 55 and 56: Appendix BConstraints and Limitatio
Page 57: Appendix DIllustrative Terms and Co

The Bot Baseline Fraud in Digital Advertising

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