What is malware?

Malware is short for malicious software, and it refers to any software designed to disrupt computer operation, gather sensitive information, or gain access to private computer systems. Malware is usually hidden within seemingly harmless files and programs that have been laced with “malicious code”. This code may be advertised as a way to increase the functionality of the program, or make it more popular with users. It may also be used to harvest personal information from user computers or to disable security software to help other types of malware infect user computers. 

The first malware was discovered in 1988, and it was created by two students in Pakistan. The code was designed to erase the hard drive of any computer running a certain program. Since then, malware has evolved into many different forms, including keyloggers, worms, trojan horses, rootkits, and spyware.

Malware is usually spread through online downloads from untrustworthy sources. These include email attachments, free software, pirated software, file sharing sites and even advertisements on legitimate websites. People should be very careful when downloading files from the Internet and should always choose “Save” instead of “Run” when prompted by their web browser.

It is also very important to keep security software up-to-date.

Another way that malware can be spread is by computer viruses. A computer virus is a type of malware that replicates and spreads from one computer to another. Computer viruses are often attached to legitimate programs or files, making it difficult for users to differentiate between the two. Some viruses may even be spread through USB flash drives.

How does malware affect me as a publisher?

As a publisher, malware has two main risks. Firstly, you risk being exposed to malware yourself which can have a direct impact on your ability to operate your business.

Secondly, you risk the security of your audience (and, by extension, their trust). Publishers need to be extremely vigilant about protecting their users from being inadvertently exposed to malware by visiting their site.

Malware can be delivered to your audience in several ways. For example, malware could be hosted on your server and delivered to users through out of date WordPress plugins. Another way, which is a key area that Trade House Media look to support publishers in, is through the programmatic ads that are shown on your site.

When a programmatic ad loads on your website, it is essentially a frame on your site that you are allowing 3rd parties to deliver content through. This allows for dynamic content to be loaded and is the bedrock of the entire programmatic advertising ecosystem. However, not all 3rd parties operate in good faith and there are bad actors that look to exploit this access to your site by delivering malicious content through these ads. Malware through junk ads is an ongoing concern.

Don’t the ad tech bidders and platforms protect against malware already?

The best programmatic marketplaces (supply side platforms) have checks and balances in place to ensure that only the most reputable advertisers are bidding on your inventory. However, they operate global businesses with dozens of demand side platforms, serving thousands of advertisers and delivering billions of ad impressions every day. This means that there is opportunity for these malicious bad actors to slip through the net. 

How does Trade House Media support publishers in the fight against malware?

Trade House Media have partnered with the world’s leading malware protection business, The Media Trust to act as an additional layer of defence and to protect all of our publishers from malware being delivered on their sites.

The Media Trust’s real-time ad quality management tool Media Filter enables us to dial in risk profiles through the ability to block or notify on a variety of factors, including malware, sensitive categories, and High/Medium-Risk Ad Platforms (HRAP and MRAP). Companies on the HRAP and MRAP lists are evaluated based on:

  • real-time and historical malicious activity detected on their platforms
  • presence of known malicious actors advertising on the platform
  • investigations into the platform’s business practices
  • and other factors

Media Filter’s principal Malware list is fuelled by The Media Trust’s unrivalled and constantly updated malware and malvertising data. This is accumulated through

  • Leveraging a massive global infrastructure of devices to scour the digital ecosystem;
  • Exhaustive analysis by extensive malware analyst teams;
  • Use of AI and other cutting-edge technology for creative and code pattern recognition;
  • Working with a large and diverse range of ad tech platforms; and
  • Relentless tracking of known bad actors.

Even with the programmatic marketplaces claiming to have a clean supply chain, we still filter out millions of ads per month across our group of publishers.

We offer this service and technology as a standard to all of our publishers at no cost, meaning that you can rest assured that your valuable audience is protected.