Category Archives: malvertising

TikTok scrubs ads promoting diet pills, fake apps after Tenable report

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Silly scammers, TikTok is for kids. The video-sharing app, which claims some 49 million daily active users in the U.S., said Thursday it removed an array of advertisements from its central #ForYou page that marketed suspicious diet pills, fake mobile apps and other inauthentic services. The removal came after researchers from the security firm Tenable alerted TikTok about an ecosystem of promotions that aim to defraud users out of money, trick them into downloading shady apps or collect their personally identifiable information. Some ads promise to compensate users who download mobile apps and run those programs for three minutes, a tactic that allows attackers to subvert security controls. Other messaging masquerades as news articles, apparently from CNN or Fox News, that include celebrities marketing “free” weight loss pills. “Scammers see [TikTok] users as a means to an end – the goal is to prey on consumer insecurities and desires to […]

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Fake WordPress Plugin SiteSpeed Serves Malicious Ads & Backdoors

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Fake WordPress plugins appear to be trending as an effective way of establishing a foothold on compromised websites.
During a recent investigation, we discovered a fake component which was masquerading as a legitimate plugin. Named SiteSpeed, it conta… Continue reading Fake WordPress Plugin SiteSpeed Serves Malicious Ads & Backdoors→

Google fights spammy extensions with new Chrome Web Store policy

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The policies are specifically meant to fight spam, but they outlaw tactics taken by malicious extensions as well, including fake reviews. Continue reading Google fights spammy extensions with new Chrome Web Store policy→

Scammers are abusing mobile ad networks in an attempt to phish Android app users

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A network that delivers ads to hundreds of Android apps also is directing users to malicious websites that could help scammers steal their information or overrun their device with spam. At least 400 apps in Google’s Play Store come embedded with proprietary software that is designed to help app developers monetize their program by serving ads. Scammers are exploiting that process, though, by inserting malicious ads into the software development kits (SDKs) which are meant to help developers earn a living. Domains and URLs sent in ads from the distribution framework known as StartApp flood users with links to malicious sites or push notifications for spam, according to new findings from mobile security firm Wandera provided exclusively to CyberScoop. StartApp, created and run by a New York-based marketing firm, does not appear to be behind any malicious content, though it is compensated by other firms that supply it with the malicious ads. StartApp did not […]

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49 malicious Chrome extensions caught pickpocketing crypto wallets

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They were posing as crypto wallets in order to rip off users’ private keys and mnemonic phrases and drain real wallets. Google’s yanked them. Continue reading 49 malicious Chrome extensions caught pickpocketing crypto wallets→

Free trojanized WordPress themes lead to widespread compromise of web servers

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Over 20,000 web servers (and who knows how many websites) have been compromised via trojanized WordPress themes to deliver malware through malicious ads, Prevailion researchers have discovered. The compromised servers are located across the globe and m… Continue reading Free trojanized WordPress themes lead to widespread compromise of web servers→

Top 10 Podcast Episodes from 2019

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Thank you for supporting and listening to the show this year! Initial data on our download numbers show that we’ve grown our audience by over 40% in 2019! Having said that, if you haven’t listened to our most popular episodes you should def… Continue reading Top 10 Podcast Episodes from 2019→