Malvertising on Google Ads is a lucrative venture for cybercriminals - Tech Monitor

Malvertising campaigns impacting Google Ads are on the rise. While the technique of convincing internet users to download malware by clicking on seemingly legitimate adverts is not a new one, its popularity has spiked due to an increase in the sophistication of malware as well as the value of credentials they can be harvested. Security experts say caution should be exercised when clicking on adverts at the top of the search engine’s home page.

Google Ads are being targeted by a growing number of malvertising campaigns (Photo by PixieMe/Shutterstock)

Cybercriminals are currently spreading malware through numerous copycat advertisements on Google. On Monday Tech Monitor reported on how Rhadamanthys malware was being spread through fake adverts for OBS, a service used by streamers. Since then several other ongoing malvertisement campaigns have been spotted by security researchers, using spoofed adverts for products including AnyDesk, a tool used by IT teams to troubleshoot user issues remotely.

The consequences of successful attacks can be severe. A Twitter user going by the handle @NFTGod claims to have lost a “life altering” amount of money through an “instantly violating and final” attack, after clicking on a malicious phishing link while trying to download OBS.

Ongoing malvertising campaign reaches top of Google

The hackers appear to be using a combination of advertisement hijacking and SEO poisoning, where criminals tweak the search engine optimisation of their adverts...

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