A report being published by a team of hackers-turned-corporate warriors has estimated online advertising fraud\u00a0is\u00a0now netting $7.3bn per year for criminals who employ a\u00a0team a worldwide network of “zombie” computers.<\/p>\n
White Ops<\/a>,\u00a0an anti-botnet and -malware cyber-security firm, conducted a report, Bot Baseline: Fraud in Digital Advertising<\/a>, with\u00a0the Association of National Advertisers, looking at ad traffic from 49 advertisers over a two-month period.<\/span><\/p>\n It found the problem is not growing in proportion but certainly is in value.<\/span><\/p>\n “The exposure of all advertising has remained the same,” CEO Michael Tiffany tells Beet.TV in this video interview. “<\/span>It was a $7.3bn impact. These botanist are being compromised all over the place.”\u00a0<\/span>The prior’ year’s study<\/a>\u00a0had found the problem to be worth $6.3bn.<\/p>\n Ad fraud is a problem that is often cited in ad buyers’ list of technology concerns. How does it work?\u00a0Simply put, malware authors exploit weaknesses in consumers’ computers to inject malicious code that strings together thousands of machines in a network that can silently hit web pages,\u00a0appearing to clock up payable ad views.<\/p>\n “Ad fraud is one of the best ways to make money if you command a robot army of regular consumers,”\u00a0Tiffany explains. “Bots that visit a website look like real human visitors. Bots are a variety of malware built out of regular browsers.<\/span><\/p>\n “The reason we\u2019re not winning the war is, for every advertiser that has reduced their bot exposure, some other parts of the net have just gotten that much dirtier.\u00a0<\/span>Cybercriminals that we\u2019re up against are fantastic at making fake traffic look good.”<\/span><\/p>\n