A malvertising network has placed malevolent ads on over 700 domains including such major sites as Amazon, Youtube, and Yahoo. Malvertising is not new, but the current network dubbed “Kyle and Stan” by Cisco security researchers has clever techniques to to avoid detection and spread the attack on major domains. Companies can be vulnerable to the social engineering aspect of malvertising, but a good security strategy can protect companies from this threat.
Simply put, malvertising is malevolent advertising on placed on legitimate sites. When people click on these ads, their computers can be infected or redirected to a malicious website. The Online Trust Alliance estimates that almost 10 billion malevolent ads were clicked in 2012. [1] There are range of ways that the malicious content infects the computer like fake installations of security software (with users unwitting compliance), downloads that the user may or may not authorize, malicious i-frames in websites, co-opting a computer into a content delivery network and more.
According to Cisco, the current attack appears on a range of popular domains like Amazon.com and more. Once clicking the ad, users are redirected to a malicious site, and when they click on the download, the malware detects if they have a PC or Mac. Based on their operating system, a malicious file begins downloading on their computer. This attack has been operating since last spring and currently is known to infect over 700 domains.
Though the attack is serious, a good security strategy that includes network security, advanced malware protection, and CWS or WSA network scanning. For a comprehensive solution to your security challenges, talk to the experts at Integracon by chatting via our website or calling 865-330-2323.
[1] Online Trust Alliance. <https://otalliance.org/resources/malvertising.html>
