Malvertising
[2] Because advertising content can be inserted into high-profile and reputable websites, malvertising provides malefactors an opportunity to push their attacks to web users who might not otherwise see the ads, due to firewalls, more safety precautions, or the like.
"[6] It is able to expose millions of users to malware, even the most cautious, and is growing rapidly: "In 2012, it was estimated nearly 10 billion ad impressions were compromised by malvertising.
"[5] When websites or web publishers unknowingly incorporate corrupted or malicious advertisements into their page, computers can become infected pre-click and post-click.
The threat was based on a vulnerability in Adobe Flash (something that has continued into the late 2010s[11]) and affected a number of platforms including MySpace, Excite and Rhapsody.
The banner feed of The New York Times was hacked for the weekend of September 11 to 14, causing some readers to see advertisements telling them their systems were infected and trying to trick them into installing rogue security software on their computers.
The New York Times then suspended third-party advertisements to address the problem, and even posted advice for readers regarding this issue on its technology blog.
Marketing analysts ClickZ[13] noted that the Online Trust Alliance (OTA) identified billions of display ads, across 3500 sites carrying malware.
In 2011, Spotify had a malvertising attack which used the Blackhole exploit kit – this was one of the first instances of a drive-by download, where a user does not even have to click on an ad to become infected with malware.
It was seen as part of a general campaign of malvertising to hit large news portals – this strategy carried on into subsequent years with attacks on huffingtonpost.com and The New York Times.
[20] Malvertising cash or cryptocurrency giveaway campaigns with actors masquerading as popular figures including YouTuber MrBeast, Elon Musk, and others have been seen across many advertising platforms and social media sites.
[21][22] In 2022, reports surfaced of Native advertising on google search masquerading to be various software download pages (oftentimes open source), leading users to instead download ransomware, info stealer, or redirect them to tech support scams[23][24][25] Several popular websites and news sources have been victims to malvertising and have had malicious advertisements placed on their webpages or widgets unknowingly, including Horoscope.com, The New York Times,[26] the London Stock Exchange, Spotify, and The Onion.
[2] Users can also use ad blocking software to avoid downloading the malware contained in advertisements[32] or a specific browser extension alerting malvertising campaigns.
