News
50% chance of malware in ads on live streaming sites - expert comment
June 2016 by Fraser Kyne, regional SE director at Bromium
According to the researchers from KU Leuven-iMinds (Belgium) and Stony Brook University in the US, as much as 50 per cent of the video overlay ads on free livestreaming websites are malicious. This study has revealed that the use of free live streaming websites can put viewers at security risk as these websites make you vulnerable to malware infections, personal data theft and scams.
Fraser Kyne, regional SE director at Bromium:
“Malvertising is highly effective because cyber criminals can target their attacks to specific demographics and deliver them with tremendous volume. The online advertising model is such that ad networks simply cannot verify the validity of each and every advertisement it serves, which ultimately passes the cost of security onto security teams. It is extremely difficult for the ad networks and platforms to detect all malvertising because an ad that appears good when submitted can refer to a site that delivers malware once the ad has been accepted.
In order to prevent malvertisements, and other endpoint attacks, organisations should invest in strong endpoint protection. Most traditional endpoint protection solutions are failing because they rely on detection, which allow many attacks to succeed. Instead, organisations should investigate proactive protection, in the form of prevention, such as endpoint threat isolation or virtualization based security. Additionally, ad-blocking browser extensions can be a highly effective way of mitigating malvertising attacks.”
