Malvertising Wanes in Q4

Despite another increase in year-over-year malvertising detections, research shows the numbers are trending down. According to RiskIQ’s Q4 Malvertising Roundup, the company scanned nearly 10% fewer incidents than the quarter before. This decrease has become a pattern: The Q3 report showed a massive decrease in malvertising beginning in the second half of 2017. Even so, thanks to high numbers of incidents in the first half of the year, overall malvertising in 2017 increased 2.8% against 2016. “Threat actors perform malvertising in all kinds of ways – phishing, scams, exploit kits, and malware – sometimes even via a drive-by-download, where the target user doesn’t have to click on a malicious link; the ad downloads the infection from the iFrame without their knowledge,” said RiskIQ researchers in a blog. “Sometimes, the ad will download software, which collects information on the user’s computer, or adbots that add to a wide-ranging fraudulent ad network. Ransomware is also a malvertising method, encrypting the unfortunate victim’s files and charging money to get them unencrypted.”