Companies need to work together to combat malvertising

Advertising agencies, search engines and cybersecurity specialists should work collectively to tackle the security threat from rising malvertising.

According to Ben Williams, head of operations and communications at Adblock Plus unless this happens more users will be exposed to potential security compromises such as malware and phishing, and this will drive further adoption of adblockers as a solution to these threats.

A study from digital threat management firm Risk IQ shows total malvertising rose at a startling 132 percent between 2015 and 2016. Among the most notorious ads in the previous year were fake software at 70 percent, scams at 845 percent, and redirects to phishing pages at 1,978 percent. Add in a 7.2 percent growth in digital advertising in 2016 and the chances of users falling victim to malvertising are increasing.

"While it's positive to see digital ad spend increasing, if rising malvertising is a by-product, then it's going to be detrimental for both users and the industry," says Williams. "The results coming from the Risk IQ report also seem to suggest a delayed response from advertising parties in tackling the issue, especially as the problem extends past websites, and directly onto users. If users are not protected, we’re going to see more people looking for ways to mitigate their security, which will naturally include anti-malware software and adblockers."

Adblock Plus research carried out with HubSpot in 2016, finds that 39 percent of respondents are using ad blockers to address security concerns, while another 32 percent aere concerned about privacy. PageFair's latest adblocking report also found adblocker usage soaring 30 percent in 2016, with security cited as the number one reason for people using an adblocker.

Williams concludes, "Malvertising is something that simply won't go away overnight. The trouble is, it's very difficult to eradicate completely, even for the best ad networks in the world. For practitioners of malware it offers a massive return on investment meaning more forms of malvertising, while on the other end of the spectrum, ads provide the monetary support for smaller and independent websites to remain live and active. If global ad spend is set to increase then there needs to be a sustainable effort made to keep users safe, but also provide relevant content. At the same time, the worrying surge in malware may serve as the stark call-to-action needed for the industry to come together and adopt new measures to tackle against this security threat."

Image Credit: Sam72 / Shutterstock