company names mentioned herein are for identification and educational purposes only and are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners.
The document discusses the growing problem of bot traffic in online advertising and how it undermines the industry. It notes that as much as 36% of online traffic may be from bots. Bots are sophisticated software that can mimic human behavior to fraudulently generate ad views and traffic. This costs advertisers and undermines metrics. The document outlines Adaptive Media's three-pronged approach to addressing the problem, including vetting publishers, using third-party validation of traffic quality, and participating in industry groups to tackle the issue and establish standards.
Field Guide for Validating Premium Ad InventoryDistil Networks
Many of the current technologies used to detect fraud are great at detecting the amount of fraud (e.g., post-bid analysis). However, we need more technologies and techniques that focus on how to stop fraud before it happens. Having continuous, real-time data is important for this; but equally important are the policies and disclosures of the publishers and ad networks themselves.
Key Takeaways:
- The State of Digital Ad Fraud -- Terminology, landscape and trends
- The advertiser and publisher perspective -- Top issues and concerns
- Tools of the trade and best practices -- The different technologies and approaches to detecting and mitigating digital ad fraud
- Anatomy of a successful premium ad inventory program -- Whitepages’ guiding principles, policies and procedures
- In 2017, financial phishing attacks increased, accounting for over half of all phishing detections according to Kaspersky Lab. Attacks targeted major banks, payment systems, and online shops.
- Banking malware attacks decreased in 2017 but still posed a threat, with the Zbot and Gozi families being the most widespread. Android banking malware also decreased slightly.
- Emerging threats in 2017 included the Silence hacking group that targeted 10 financial organizations, stealing millions, and new malware like Cutlet Maker designed to target ATMs.
This report analyzes revenue sources for the 250 most popular unauthorized websites in Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the UK. It finds that advertising and payments are the primary revenue sources. The top 3 advertising intermediaries across all sites are AdCash, PropellerAds/OnClickAds, and DirectREV. Payment methods like Visa and Mastercard are also still used on many sites despite being notified previously. The report concludes that concerted efforts are needed to disrupt these revenue streams to threaten the continued operation of unauthorized sites.
2016 Bad Bot Report: Quantifying the Risk and Economic Impact of Bad BotsDistil Networks
Distil Networks has produced their third annual Bad Bot Report. It's the IT Security Industry's most in-depth analysis on the sources, types, and sophistication levels of last year's bot attacks -- and there are serious implications for anyone responsible for securing websites and APIs.
Join Derek Brink, Vice President of Research at Aberdeen Group and Rami Essaid, CEO of Distil Networks as they dive into the data to reveal:
• 6 high-risk lessons every IT security pro must know
• How to quantify the risk and economic impact of bad bots for your organization
• How bot activity varies across websites based on industry and popularity
• The worst offending countries, ISPs, mobile operators, and hosting providers
Bad bots are the key culprits behind web scraping, brute force attacks, competitive data mining, online fraud, account hijacking, unauthorized vulnerability scans, spam, man-in-the-middle attacks, digital ad fraud, and downtime.
The document discusses current trends in online payment fraud, including how fraudsters use increasingly sophisticated methods like malware, phishing, and stolen credit card numbers. It provides statistics on the scale of the online "shadow economy" and common fraud detection tools. The document recommends merchants strengthen protections by knowing their enemies' methods in order to help reduce fraud losses.
The document discusses the growing problem of bot traffic in online advertising and how it undermines the industry. It notes that as much as 36% of online traffic may be from bots. Bots are sophisticated software that can mimic human behavior to fraudulently generate ad views and traffic. This costs advertisers and undermines metrics. The document outlines Adaptive Media's three-pronged approach to addressing the problem, including vetting publishers, using third-party validation of traffic quality, and participating in industry groups to tackle the issue and establish standards.
Field Guide for Validating Premium Ad InventoryDistil Networks
Many of the current technologies used to detect fraud are great at detecting the amount of fraud (e.g., post-bid analysis). However, we need more technologies and techniques that focus on how to stop fraud before it happens. Having continuous, real-time data is important for this; but equally important are the policies and disclosures of the publishers and ad networks themselves.
Key Takeaways:
- The State of Digital Ad Fraud -- Terminology, landscape and trends
- The advertiser and publisher perspective -- Top issues and concerns
- Tools of the trade and best practices -- The different technologies and approaches to detecting and mitigating digital ad fraud
- Anatomy of a successful premium ad inventory program -- Whitepages’ guiding principles, policies and procedures
- In 2017, financial phishing attacks increased, accounting for over half of all phishing detections according to Kaspersky Lab. Attacks targeted major banks, payment systems, and online shops.
- Banking malware attacks decreased in 2017 but still posed a threat, with the Zbot and Gozi families being the most widespread. Android banking malware also decreased slightly.
- Emerging threats in 2017 included the Silence hacking group that targeted 10 financial organizations, stealing millions, and new malware like Cutlet Maker designed to target ATMs.
This report analyzes revenue sources for the 250 most popular unauthorized websites in Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the UK. It finds that advertising and payments are the primary revenue sources. The top 3 advertising intermediaries across all sites are AdCash, PropellerAds/OnClickAds, and DirectREV. Payment methods like Visa and Mastercard are also still used on many sites despite being notified previously. The report concludes that concerted efforts are needed to disrupt these revenue streams to threaten the continued operation of unauthorized sites.
2016 Bad Bot Report: Quantifying the Risk and Economic Impact of Bad BotsDistil Networks
Distil Networks has produced their third annual Bad Bot Report. It's the IT Security Industry's most in-depth analysis on the sources, types, and sophistication levels of last year's bot attacks -- and there are serious implications for anyone responsible for securing websites and APIs.
Join Derek Brink, Vice President of Research at Aberdeen Group and Rami Essaid, CEO of Distil Networks as they dive into the data to reveal:
• 6 high-risk lessons every IT security pro must know
• How to quantify the risk and economic impact of bad bots for your organization
• How bot activity varies across websites based on industry and popularity
• The worst offending countries, ISPs, mobile operators, and hosting providers
Bad bots are the key culprits behind web scraping, brute force attacks, competitive data mining, online fraud, account hijacking, unauthorized vulnerability scans, spam, man-in-the-middle attacks, digital ad fraud, and downtime.
The document discusses current trends in online payment fraud, including how fraudsters use increasingly sophisticated methods like malware, phishing, and stolen credit card numbers. It provides statistics on the scale of the online "shadow economy" and common fraud detection tools. The document recommends merchants strengthen protections by knowing their enemies' methods in order to help reduce fraud losses.
Over the last several years, financial institutions have spent billions of dollars and resources securing a perimeter defense system consisting of intrusion detection, intrusion prevention, firewalls, user authentication, and other layers of security all built to secure their financial systems. Due to the exponential increase in internal and external information security incidents, these investments are necessary to protect an institution’s reputation and revenue. In addition, the federal government is using regulatory means to ensure the banks
take responsibility for potential losses.
Of equal or even greater threat, however, are the social aspects of the Internet that cannot
be controlled. For example, financial institutions need to be aware of the reputational risk that is inherent on the Internet. Each institution needs to do more than reactively protect its data; it must also proactively safeguard its reputation online, where references to its corporate name alone can number in the millions. An institution must also guard against infringements against its logo, its trademarks or other graphic representations. This risk, outside the firewall, is the other side of the coin.
Better Metrics, Less Hacks: Online Travel and The Future of Web SecurityDistil Networks
30% of travel industry website visitors are unsavory competitors, hackers, spammers, and fraudsters. Fact is, travel suppliers, OTAs, and metasearch sites are all being scraped by bots which hurts their marketing metrics, SEO, website performance, and customer loyalty.
View this presentation to understand:
- The prevalence and impact of bots on your website
- How to improve your online KPIs
- How to identify and block fraudsters and scrapers
- When a web scraper is actually good
The future of online travel and website security
Field Guide To Preventing Competitor Price Scraping, Unwanted Transactions, B...Distil Networks
Like most ecommerce sites, StubHub’s competitors try to scrape their prices, and monitor inventory and customer behavior. Meanwhile, other nefarious actors attempt brute force attacks and transaction fraud. Learn advanced website security and web infrastructure management strategies from StubHub, the world’s largest ticket marketplace, and Distil Networks, the global leader in bot detection and mitigation.
Learn how to:
- Protect prices and product listings from being scraped or monitored by competitors
- Defend your site against brute force login attacks and carding
- Ensure brand secrets and pricing schedules are kept safe
- Increase revenues by ensuring traffic is from legitimate sources
- Protect your brand image, reputation and SEO rankings
Find out how to protect your petroleum retail assets from cyber attacks and discover 6 steps to take once you uncover a hack, how to notify data breach victims, what to do if you discover malware, red flags to watch for on social media, and more!
Very useful description and guidelines from the IAB about traffic fraud and digital ad fraud.
SOURCE: http://www.iab.net/member_center/traffic_of_good_intent_task_force
This document summarizes information about phishing attacks, including how they work, common techniques used by phishers, and ways to prevent phishing. It notes that phishing works by deceiving users through fake websites, emails, and URLs that mimic legitimate sites to steal login credentials and private information. Specific phishing methods discussed include visual deception, browser deception, spear phishing, URL redirection flaws, and address bar spoofing. The summary also provides statistics on phishing prevalence and recommendations for technical and user-based defenses against phishing.
This document provides an overview of phishing techniques and methods. It defines phishing as impersonating legitimate websites to steal user credentials. The document describes the phishing life cycle, which includes planning attacks, collecting credentials through fake websites, and committing fraud. It also discusses common phishing techniques like mimicking legitimate websites and using pop-up windows to steal information. The goal of the document is to analyze phishing methods to help combat this growing security threat.
The document discusses various topics related to computer-mediated communication and online dating, including common online dating scams, the effectiveness of online dating algorithms, and privacy and security risks of sharing personal information online. It warns that sharing too much information can expose users to identity theft and that many online dating sites have not proven their matching systems lead to long-term relationships.
2014 Cybercrime Roundup: The Year of the POS BreachEMC
This RSA fraud report summarizes cybercrime in 2014 and includes the number of phishing attacks globally, top hosting countries for phishing attacks, the financial impact of global fraud losses, and a monthly highlight.
The FBI is the lead federal agency for investigating malicious cyber activity by criminals, nation-state adversaries, and terrorists. To fulfill this mission, the FBI often develops resources to enhance operations and collaboration. One such resource is the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) which provides the public with a trustworthy and convenient mechanism for reporting information concerning suspected Internet-facilitated criminal activity. At the end of every year, the IC3 collates information collected into an annual report.
Credit is due to all original authors and no financial gain was made from the blog, Simply sharing an interesting story for educational purposes,
Phishing attack types and mitigation strategiesSarim Khawaja
This document discusses various types of phishing attacks and mitigation strategies. It describes several types of phishing attacks like spear phishing, rock phishing, fast flux phishing, tilde phishing, water-holing, and whaling. It also discusses common tools and techniques used in phishing attacks, such as spam emails, social engineering on instant messaging and social media, SMS phishing, tabnabbing, vishing/phone phishing, flash-based phishing sites, typo squatting, URL manipulation, session hijacking, man-in-the-middle attacks, evil twins, and exploiting browser vulnerabilities. The document stresses that businesses need to proactively defend against continuously evolving phishing attacks to
Phishing is an attack that deals with social engineering system to illegally get and utilize another person's information for the benefit of authentic site for possess advantage (e.g. Take of client's secret word and Visa precise elements during online correspondence). It is influencing all the significant areas of industry step by step with a considerable measure of abuse of client qualifications. To secure clients against phishing, different hostile to phishing procedures have been suggested that takes after various methodologies like customer side and server side insurance. In this paper we have considered phishing in detail (counting assault process and grouping of phishing assault) and investigated a portion of the current sites to phishing strategies alongside their points of interest and disadvantages.
Distil Networks 2017 Bad Bot Report: 6 High Risk Lessons for Website DefendersDistil Networks
This document summarizes key findings from Distil Networks' 2017 Bad Bot Report. Some of the main points include:
- Bad bots accounted for 19.9% of web traffic in 2016 and target sites with login pages, payment processors, web forms, and pricing information.
- Larger sites have a bigger bad bot problem, with bad bot traffic increasing 36.43% year-over-year on large sites.
- The US originates more bad bot traffic than all other countries combined, and data centers are responsible for two-thirds of bad bot traffic.
- Bad bots lie about their identities and increasingly claim to be mobile browsers. Protecting login pages and blocking old browsers/user agents can help mitigate
The document provides an overview of phishing techniques used over the past decade based on investigations by an RSA FraudAction forensic analyst. It describes how phishing campaigns are typically set up and distributed, as well as various technical methods used, including: generating random folder paths to host phishing sites and avoid detection; encoding phishing pages in email attachments or URLs; and using Man-in-the-Middle techniques to forward stolen credentials to legitimate sites behind the scenes. The document outlines common motivation and cash-out methods for phishers, such as selling stolen data or using money mules. It also discusses evolving tactics like multi-branded tax refund scams and deploying phishing sites in bulk across numerous domains and paths.
This report analyzes data on human and non-human internet traffic. Some key findings:
- 42% of all impressions came from verified human users, while 58% could not be verified as human.
- The percentage of verified human traffic varies greatly by site category, from over 75% for forums to under 10% for sites like job searches.
- Certain top-level domains like .com and .gov have over 50% verified human traffic on average, while .info domains have only 3% on average.
- Some US states like Oregon and Virginia have unusually low percentages of verified human traffic, possibly due to high levels of automated traffic from Amazon servers located in those areas.
Click fraud, where advertisers' links are clicked automatically without being viewed by real users, is a growing problem for Google and other search networks. Some estimates say up to 50% of advertising fees are lost to click fraud. A man was recently arrested for trying to blackmail Google with a click fraud program. While Google claims to have measures against click fraud, many experts believe it remains a significant, widespread issue that exposes weaknesses in the pay-per-click advertising model. Alternative organic search optimization is proposed as a safer approach by some like ArticleDash.com.
Significant factors for Detecting Redirection Spamijtsrd
This document discusses significant factors for detecting redirection spam. Redirection spam refers to techniques where users are redirected through multiple domains and pages until reaching a compromised page. The document reviews related work on redirection spam detection and identifies new factors that could help detect malicious redirections more accurately. These factors include the number of domains and script-generated redirections visited, the number of redirection hops, the delay in page refresh times, the HTTP status codes which indicate redirection, and the use of iframes. The identified factors provide criteria to design more robust approaches for detecting redirection spam.
Major data breaches in 2018 were often caused by vulnerabilities in third-party systems. Common third parties that led to breaches included cloud services, payment processors, JavaScript libraries, online tools, small suppliers, and transcription services. One breach exposed over 500 million Marriott guest records due to a pre-acquisition breach at Starwood, highlighting cyber risk in mergers and acquisitions.
Improving Phishing URL Detection Using Fuzzy Association Miningtheijes
Phishing is the process to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by disguising as a trustworthy entity by the use of an electronic communication. Phishing attack continues to pose a solemn risk for web users and annoying threat within the field of electronic commerce. The Phishing detection using fuzzy and binary matrix construction method focuses on discerning the significant features that discriminate between legitimate and phishing URLs. The significant features are extracting the number of dots, length of the host etc., from each URL. These features are then subjected to associative rule mining-apriori and predictive apriori. The rules obtained are interpreted to emphasize the features that are more prevalent in phishing URLs. The key factors for the phished URLs are number of slashes in the URL, dot in the host portion of the URL and length of the URL. The pitfall of binary matrix method is the time complexity. So it impacts the overall speed of the system. The fuzzy based logic association rule mining algorithm was proposed to classify the legitimate and phishing URLs based on the features. The extracted features are converted to fuzzy membership values as “Low”,’ Medium’ and “High”. By applying association rule mining algorithm the rules are generated to detect the phishing URLs. The fuzzy based methodology provides efficient and high rate of phishing detection of URLs
company names mentioned herein are for identification and educational purposes only and are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners.
Over the last several years, financial institutions have spent billions of dollars and resources securing a perimeter defense system consisting of intrusion detection, intrusion prevention, firewalls, user authentication, and other layers of security all built to secure their financial systems. Due to the exponential increase in internal and external information security incidents, these investments are necessary to protect an institution’s reputation and revenue. In addition, the federal government is using regulatory means to ensure the banks
take responsibility for potential losses.
Of equal or even greater threat, however, are the social aspects of the Internet that cannot
be controlled. For example, financial institutions need to be aware of the reputational risk that is inherent on the Internet. Each institution needs to do more than reactively protect its data; it must also proactively safeguard its reputation online, where references to its corporate name alone can number in the millions. An institution must also guard against infringements against its logo, its trademarks or other graphic representations. This risk, outside the firewall, is the other side of the coin.
Better Metrics, Less Hacks: Online Travel and The Future of Web SecurityDistil Networks
30% of travel industry website visitors are unsavory competitors, hackers, spammers, and fraudsters. Fact is, travel suppliers, OTAs, and metasearch sites are all being scraped by bots which hurts their marketing metrics, SEO, website performance, and customer loyalty.
View this presentation to understand:
- The prevalence and impact of bots on your website
- How to improve your online KPIs
- How to identify and block fraudsters and scrapers
- When a web scraper is actually good
The future of online travel and website security
Field Guide To Preventing Competitor Price Scraping, Unwanted Transactions, B...Distil Networks
Like most ecommerce sites, StubHub’s competitors try to scrape their prices, and monitor inventory and customer behavior. Meanwhile, other nefarious actors attempt brute force attacks and transaction fraud. Learn advanced website security and web infrastructure management strategies from StubHub, the world’s largest ticket marketplace, and Distil Networks, the global leader in bot detection and mitigation.
Learn how to:
- Protect prices and product listings from being scraped or monitored by competitors
- Defend your site against brute force login attacks and carding
- Ensure brand secrets and pricing schedules are kept safe
- Increase revenues by ensuring traffic is from legitimate sources
- Protect your brand image, reputation and SEO rankings
Find out how to protect your petroleum retail assets from cyber attacks and discover 6 steps to take once you uncover a hack, how to notify data breach victims, what to do if you discover malware, red flags to watch for on social media, and more!
Very useful description and guidelines from the IAB about traffic fraud and digital ad fraud.
SOURCE: http://www.iab.net/member_center/traffic_of_good_intent_task_force
This document summarizes information about phishing attacks, including how they work, common techniques used by phishers, and ways to prevent phishing. It notes that phishing works by deceiving users through fake websites, emails, and URLs that mimic legitimate sites to steal login credentials and private information. Specific phishing methods discussed include visual deception, browser deception, spear phishing, URL redirection flaws, and address bar spoofing. The summary also provides statistics on phishing prevalence and recommendations for technical and user-based defenses against phishing.
This document provides an overview of phishing techniques and methods. It defines phishing as impersonating legitimate websites to steal user credentials. The document describes the phishing life cycle, which includes planning attacks, collecting credentials through fake websites, and committing fraud. It also discusses common phishing techniques like mimicking legitimate websites and using pop-up windows to steal information. The goal of the document is to analyze phishing methods to help combat this growing security threat.
The document discusses various topics related to computer-mediated communication and online dating, including common online dating scams, the effectiveness of online dating algorithms, and privacy and security risks of sharing personal information online. It warns that sharing too much information can expose users to identity theft and that many online dating sites have not proven their matching systems lead to long-term relationships.
2014 Cybercrime Roundup: The Year of the POS BreachEMC
This RSA fraud report summarizes cybercrime in 2014 and includes the number of phishing attacks globally, top hosting countries for phishing attacks, the financial impact of global fraud losses, and a monthly highlight.
The FBI is the lead federal agency for investigating malicious cyber activity by criminals, nation-state adversaries, and terrorists. To fulfill this mission, the FBI often develops resources to enhance operations and collaboration. One such resource is the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) which provides the public with a trustworthy and convenient mechanism for reporting information concerning suspected Internet-facilitated criminal activity. At the end of every year, the IC3 collates information collected into an annual report.
Credit is due to all original authors and no financial gain was made from the blog, Simply sharing an interesting story for educational purposes,
Phishing attack types and mitigation strategiesSarim Khawaja
This document discusses various types of phishing attacks and mitigation strategies. It describes several types of phishing attacks like spear phishing, rock phishing, fast flux phishing, tilde phishing, water-holing, and whaling. It also discusses common tools and techniques used in phishing attacks, such as spam emails, social engineering on instant messaging and social media, SMS phishing, tabnabbing, vishing/phone phishing, flash-based phishing sites, typo squatting, URL manipulation, session hijacking, man-in-the-middle attacks, evil twins, and exploiting browser vulnerabilities. The document stresses that businesses need to proactively defend against continuously evolving phishing attacks to
Phishing is an attack that deals with social engineering system to illegally get and utilize another person's information for the benefit of authentic site for possess advantage (e.g. Take of client's secret word and Visa precise elements during online correspondence). It is influencing all the significant areas of industry step by step with a considerable measure of abuse of client qualifications. To secure clients against phishing, different hostile to phishing procedures have been suggested that takes after various methodologies like customer side and server side insurance. In this paper we have considered phishing in detail (counting assault process and grouping of phishing assault) and investigated a portion of the current sites to phishing strategies alongside their points of interest and disadvantages.
Distil Networks 2017 Bad Bot Report: 6 High Risk Lessons for Website DefendersDistil Networks
This document summarizes key findings from Distil Networks' 2017 Bad Bot Report. Some of the main points include:
- Bad bots accounted for 19.9% of web traffic in 2016 and target sites with login pages, payment processors, web forms, and pricing information.
- Larger sites have a bigger bad bot problem, with bad bot traffic increasing 36.43% year-over-year on large sites.
- The US originates more bad bot traffic than all other countries combined, and data centers are responsible for two-thirds of bad bot traffic.
- Bad bots lie about their identities and increasingly claim to be mobile browsers. Protecting login pages and blocking old browsers/user agents can help mitigate
The document provides an overview of phishing techniques used over the past decade based on investigations by an RSA FraudAction forensic analyst. It describes how phishing campaigns are typically set up and distributed, as well as various technical methods used, including: generating random folder paths to host phishing sites and avoid detection; encoding phishing pages in email attachments or URLs; and using Man-in-the-Middle techniques to forward stolen credentials to legitimate sites behind the scenes. The document outlines common motivation and cash-out methods for phishers, such as selling stolen data or using money mules. It also discusses evolving tactics like multi-branded tax refund scams and deploying phishing sites in bulk across numerous domains and paths.
This report analyzes data on human and non-human internet traffic. Some key findings:
- 42% of all impressions came from verified human users, while 58% could not be verified as human.
- The percentage of verified human traffic varies greatly by site category, from over 75% for forums to under 10% for sites like job searches.
- Certain top-level domains like .com and .gov have over 50% verified human traffic on average, while .info domains have only 3% on average.
- Some US states like Oregon and Virginia have unusually low percentages of verified human traffic, possibly due to high levels of automated traffic from Amazon servers located in those areas.
Click fraud, where advertisers' links are clicked automatically without being viewed by real users, is a growing problem for Google and other search networks. Some estimates say up to 50% of advertising fees are lost to click fraud. A man was recently arrested for trying to blackmail Google with a click fraud program. While Google claims to have measures against click fraud, many experts believe it remains a significant, widespread issue that exposes weaknesses in the pay-per-click advertising model. Alternative organic search optimization is proposed as a safer approach by some like ArticleDash.com.
Significant factors for Detecting Redirection Spamijtsrd
This document discusses significant factors for detecting redirection spam. Redirection spam refers to techniques where users are redirected through multiple domains and pages until reaching a compromised page. The document reviews related work on redirection spam detection and identifies new factors that could help detect malicious redirections more accurately. These factors include the number of domains and script-generated redirections visited, the number of redirection hops, the delay in page refresh times, the HTTP status codes which indicate redirection, and the use of iframes. The identified factors provide criteria to design more robust approaches for detecting redirection spam.
Major data breaches in 2018 were often caused by vulnerabilities in third-party systems. Common third parties that led to breaches included cloud services, payment processors, JavaScript libraries, online tools, small suppliers, and transcription services. One breach exposed over 500 million Marriott guest records due to a pre-acquisition breach at Starwood, highlighting cyber risk in mergers and acquisitions.
Improving Phishing URL Detection Using Fuzzy Association Miningtheijes
Phishing is the process to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by disguising as a trustworthy entity by the use of an electronic communication. Phishing attack continues to pose a solemn risk for web users and annoying threat within the field of electronic commerce. The Phishing detection using fuzzy and binary matrix construction method focuses on discerning the significant features that discriminate between legitimate and phishing URLs. The significant features are extracting the number of dots, length of the host etc., from each URL. These features are then subjected to associative rule mining-apriori and predictive apriori. The rules obtained are interpreted to emphasize the features that are more prevalent in phishing URLs. The key factors for the phished URLs are number of slashes in the URL, dot in the host portion of the URL and length of the URL. The pitfall of binary matrix method is the time complexity. So it impacts the overall speed of the system. The fuzzy based logic association rule mining algorithm was proposed to classify the legitimate and phishing URLs based on the features. The extracted features are converted to fuzzy membership values as “Low”,’ Medium’ and “High”. By applying association rule mining algorithm the rules are generated to detect the phishing URLs. The fuzzy based methodology provides efficient and high rate of phishing detection of URLs
company names mentioned herein are for identification and educational purposes only and are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners.
Children are increasingly using tablets and smartphones for a variety of media activities like watching videos, playing games, and social networking. Tablet ownership has more than doubled among children and is now used by over 40% of children aged 5-15. Smartphone ownership has remained stable but is now the preferred device for social networking among older children. Fewer children now have TVs and other devices in their bedrooms. Younger children especially are using tablets for online activities like games, while older children use smartphones for social media and instant messaging. However, fewer children overall now have social networking profiles. Parents remain concerned about both TV content and time spent online, but increasingly use a variety of tools to help children stay safe.
All product and company names mentioned herein are for identification and educational purposes only and are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners.
This document proposes amendments to existing US law to strengthen criminal penalties related to damaging computers involved in critical infrastructure and clarify/expand the scope and penalties of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
For critical infrastructure computers, it establishes a new felony with 3 year minimum sentence for knowingly damaging such computers during other felony computer crimes if it substantially impairs operations or infrastructure.
For the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, it expands the definition of prohibited access, trafficking of account credentials, and damage. It also increases maximum penalties for many violations from 1-3 years to 3-10 years, and adds mandatory minimums. It also expands definition of offenses triggering higher penalties and seizure/forfeiture of related property
All product and company names mentioned herein are for identification and educational purposes only and are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners.
All product and company names mentioned herein are for identification and educational purposes only and are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners.
Fourth Annual Benchmark Study on Patient Privacy & Data Security- Mark - Fullbright
The document summarizes the findings of a study on patient privacy and data security in healthcare organizations:
- Nearly all healthcare organizations surveyed had experienced at least one data breach in the past two years, though the number of breaches decreased slightly from the previous year. However, criminal attacks on healthcare organizations have risen 100% since 2010.
- The Affordable Care Act is seen as increasing risks to patient privacy and security due to insecure health information exchanges and databases. Most organizations believe the ACA significantly or somewhat increases these risks.
- The average cost of data breaches for organizations over a two-year period was nearly $2 million, a 17% decrease from the previous year's study. However, risks
company names mentioned herein are for identification and educational purposes only and are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners.
1) The document provides an introduction to various banking concepts and terms. It explains what a bank is and how it acts as an intermediary between savers and borrowers.
2) It describes how people start banks by applying for charters and raising capital. It also gives a brief history of how banking began with merchants borrowing from wealthy individuals.
3) When customers deposit money, the specific bills and coins are mixed together and the bank uses most of the deposited funds to issue loans while maintaining required reserves.
The document summarizes a cyberthreat report from April 2015. It discusses the growing risk of data breaches and malware attacks targeting businesses. Specifically, it highlights attacks targeting healthcare organizations for their valuable personal data, and the increasing use of web malware and macro malware to infiltrate enterprise networks. It provides statistics on prevalent web threats in Q1 2015 like exploit kits and malware focused on generating revenue through hijacking and scams. It emphasizes the ongoing challenge for IT administrators to keep security software updated on all systems to prevent exploits of known vulnerabilities.
IJRET : International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology is an international peer reviewed, online journal published by eSAT Publishing House for the enhancement of research in various disciplines of Engineering and Technology. The aim and scope of the journal is to provide an academic medium and an important reference for the advancement and dissemination of research results that support high-level learning, teaching and research in the fields of Engineering and Technology. We bring together Scientists, Academician, Field Engineers, Scholars and Students of related fields of Engineering and Technology.
Android mobile platform security and malware surveyeSAT Journals
Abstract As mobile devices become ubiquitous, more people and companies are readily adopting the technology to conduct day-to-day business, and are increasing the amount of personal data transmitted and stored on these devices. These devices are now part of a global infrastructure powering communication and how we do business around the world. In turn, the inherent vulnerabilities are becoming an ever more critical topic of interest and challenge as we continue to see a rapid rate of malware development. This paper is a comprehensive survey on a broad view of the growing Android community, its rapidly growing malware attacks, and security concerns. Serving to aid in the continuous challenge of identifying current and future vulnerabilities as well as incorporating security strategies against them, this survey will focus primarily on mobile devices (also known as smart phones) running the Android mobile operating system between the years of 2007 and 2013. Index Terms: mobile, Android, malware, security
Cybercrime poses serious risks to both individuals and businesses. Nearly 400 million people fall victim to cybercrime each year through websites that have been hacked or compromised. Criminals use techniques like botnets, malware, and phishing scams to infiltrate legitimate websites and steal users' personal and financial information without their knowledge. This poses financial and reputational risks to businesses. Website owners need to take proactive steps to secure their sites, such as conducting regular vulnerability assessments and using security programs and certificates to protect users and maintain trust.
Mystery Shopping Inside the Ad-Verification BubbleShailin Dhar
This document summarizes an experiment conducted to test the effectiveness of various ad fraud detection solutions. The experiment involved setting up a fake celebrity news website and sourcing robotic traffic to monetize the site. Several major fraud detection partners were integrated, including Integral Ad Science, MOAT, Oxford-BioChronometrics and DataDome. The traffic passed verification from all solutions, demonstrating how easy it is to generate fraudulent traffic that evades common detection methods. The conclusions warn that sole reliance on third-party verification is not sufficient, and that fraud is a serious issue that requires more aggressive action from all stakeholders.
The document discusses a project to develop a machine learning based system to detect phishing websites. The system will act as a browser extension to automatically notify users when a phishing website is detected. It will use the random forest technique for supervised learning and study website features to train a classifier to detect phishing sites. The project aims to prevent phishing attacks and provide a safe browsing experience for users by distinguishing between legitimate and fraudulent websites.
What is online ad fraud and what does um do about itAlan King
Presentation on Brand Safety measures undertaken by UM London.
It's our view that agencies need to lead the charge against ad fraud. We use brand safety software as standard to protect clients' interests.
Mohd Arif introduces malvertising, which is using online advertising to spread malware. Malvertising spreads malware either by clicking on ads or through "drive-by downloads" where the malware is downloaded silently just by visiting an infected page. According to an IAB and Ernst & Young report, the digital advertising industry loses $8.2 billion annually to fraud including $1.1 billion to malvertising. To protect yourself, users should limit downloads to trusted sources, configure browser settings carefully, use an ad blocker, and keep systems updated.
Malware can infect websites and use them to spread to visitors. Websites are appealing targets because many people visit them and criminals can exploit vulnerabilities. Malware comes in many forms and can steal data, lock devices, or spread further infections. Criminals profit from malware through ransom, spam, fraud, and distributing other malware. A compromised website hurts business through lost customers, legal issues, and reputation damage. Regular security checks and prompt patching are important defenses.
Ransomware-as-a-Service: The business of distributing cyber attacksΔρ. Γιώργος K. Κασάπης
Ransomware is proving to be a profitable endeavor for cyber criminals. It is also what is fueling a newer trend: the business of offering management of ransomware attacks, or Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS).
Fueled in part by the ability to use cryptocurrency to avoid detection, cyber criminals are setting up shop as a managed service provider, helping other cyber criminals conduct business on their platforms for a fee. For that fee, cyber criminal groups get personalize access to platforms, complete with dashboard capabilities, that allow them to easily distribute their ransomware. Also included – technical support. Such full-service offerings mean that nearly anyone with internet access can launch a ransomware attack without any technical knowledge needed.
And why not? The estimated return on investment from ransomware campaigns can easily reach 1400%. The lure of a lucrative return could well attract beginners or anyone with a grudge. For organizations, the threat coming from a well-backed beginner is as damaging as one coming from a career criminal.
Study on Phishing Attacks and Antiphishing ToolsIRJET Journal
This document discusses phishing attacks and anti-phishing tools. It begins by defining phishing as fraudulent attempts to steal users' sensitive information by impersonating trustworthy entities. The document then outlines the common steps in phishing attacks, including planning, setup, attack, collection, fraud, and post-attack actions. It describes different types of phishing attacks and analyzes security issues. The document concludes by describing some popular anti-phishing tools, including Mail-Secure and the Netcraft security toolbar.
Symantec propone un'analisi approfondita sui Rogue Security Software. I RSS sono applicazioni fasulle che fingono di fornire servizi di tutela della sicurezza informatica ma che, al contrario, hanno come obiettivo quello di installare dei codici maligni che compromettono la sicurezza generale della macchina.
Panoramica - Rischi - Principali modalità di diffusione e distribuzione.
Il periodo di osservazione va da luglio 2008 a giugno 2009, qui è presentato un sommario dello Studio.
- Cybercrime profits drove cybercriminals to shift techniques in 2013 away from attachments towards malicious links as anti-spam measures improved. Ransomware targeting desktop computers also increased.
- Overall malware and spam levels decreased in 2013 from 2012 levels as botnets were disrupted, though mobile malware targeting Android devices significantly increased.
- Web security threats rose in 2013 as more websites were compromised to host exploit kits and malware, with education sites most commonly hacked. Current events were increasingly used to lure users to infected websites.
This document outlines a presentation on detecting phishing websites using machine learning. The goals of the project are to develop a machine learning model to identify phishing URLs and integrate it into a web application. It will discuss collecting and preprocessing data, selecting machine learning algorithms, developing the web app, and addressing challenges with existing phishing detection techniques. The project aims to help reduce online theft and educate users on phishing risks and countermeasures.
This document summarizes a research paper that proposes a phishing detector plugin called PHISCAN that uses machine learning to detect phishing websites. The plugin is developed for the Chrome browser using JavaScript and HTML. It extracts features from URLs to train classifiers like random forest that can accurately classify URLs as phishing or benign in less than a second while maintaining user privacy. The paper conducts a literature review of existing phishing detection systems and techniques using blacklists, heuristics, or machine learning. It motivates the need for the proposed plugin by discussing the increasing prevalence and sophistication of phishing attacks.
This document discusses the growing threat of ransomware cybercrime. It describes how ransomware works by encrypting files and demanding payment, usually in bitcoin, to decrypt them. Ransomware attacks are increasingly targeting state and local governments, police departments, hospitals, and other organizations. While preventing and prosecuting ransomware attacks is difficult, organizations like the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center work to help state and local governments strengthen their cybersecurity and detect ransomware and other malware threats.
Scam and phishing messages accounted for 19% of all spam in February, down 2% from January. Spammers continued to exploit current events like earthquakes in Haiti and Chile in their messages. Phishing attacks increased 16% from the previous month due to more unique URL and IP attacks. There was a rise in non-English and Italian/French phishing sites attributed to attacks on banks in those countries.
Analyzing the effectualness of Phishing Algorithms in Web Applications Inques...Editor IJMTER
The initial and proficient loss of deception is belief. A wolf in sheep’s clothing is tough
to recognize, similar is the schema of a phishing website. Phishing is the emulsion of social
engineering and technical exploits designed to persuade a victim to provide personal information, for
the fiscal gain of the attacker. It is a new kind of network assault where the attacker creates a spitting
image of an already existing Web Page to delude users. In this paper, we will study two anti-phishing
algorithms, one an end-host based algorithm known as the LinkGuard Algorithm, while the other a
content based approach known as the CANTINA.
Internet Security Threat Report 2014 :: Volume 19 Appendices - The hardcore n...Symantec
Internet Security Threat Report 2014 :: Volume 19 :: Appendices
Hardcore data from Symantec’s Internet Security Threat Report.
Real number crunching on Threat Malicious Code, Fraud & Vulnerability trends including
Threat Activity Trends
• Malicious Activity by Source
• Malicious Web-Based Attack Prevalence
• Analysis of Malicious Web Activity by Attack Toolkits
• Analysis of Web-Based Spyware, Adware, and Potentially Unwanted Programs
• Analysis of Web Policy Risks from Inappropriate Use
• Analysis of Website Categories Exploited to Deliver Malicious Code
• Bot-Infected Computers
• Analysis of Mobile Threats
• Quantified Self – A Path to Self-Enlightenment or Just Another Security Nightmare?
• Data Breaches that could lead to Identity Theft
• Threat of the Insider
• Gaming Attacks
• The New Black Market
Malicious Code Trends
• Top Malicious Code Families
• Analysis of Malicious Code Activity by Geography, Industry Sector, and Company Size
• Propagation Mechanisms
• Email-Targeted Spear-Phishing Attacks Intelligence
Spam and Fraud Activity Trends
• Analysis of Spam Activity Trends
• Analysis of Spam Activity by Geography, Industry Sector, and Company Size
• Analysis of Spam Delivered by Botnets
• Significant Spam Tactics
• Analysis of Spam by Categorization
• Phishing Activity Trends
• Analysis of Phishing Activity by Geography, Industry Sector, and Company Size
• New Spam Trend: BGP Hijacking
Vulnerability Trends
• Total Number of Vulnerabilities
• Zero-Day Vulnerabilities
• Web Browser Vulnerabilities
• Web Browser Plug-in Vulnerabilities
• Web Attack Toolkits SCADA Vulnerabilities
Similar to The Murky Waters of the Internet: Anatomy of Malvertising and Other e-Threats (20)
The document summarizes cyber threat trends in 2018 according to a Symantec report. It saw a rise in formjacking attacks that steal payment card data, though cryptojacking activity declined along with cryptocurrency values. Ransomware infections decreased overall but rose for enterprises. Living off the land attacks using tools like PowerShell increased substantially. Targeted attacks grew more sophisticated with groups targeting operational systems and destructive malware.
This guide aims to help journalists understand their rights at protests and avoid arrest when reporting on these events. It summarizes the legal landscape and provides strategies and tools to help journalists avoid incidents with police and navigate them successfully should they arise. Credit RCFP.Org
Credit is due to all original authors and no financial gain was made from the blog, Simply sharing an interesting story for educational purposes,
Verizon Publishes 2020 Data Breach Investigation Report (DBIR) With Insights From Thousands of Confirmed Breaches. Verizon's 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) is the most extensive yet, with 81 contributing organizations, and more than 32,000 incidents analyzed (of which 3,950 were confirmed breaches). Credit:Verizon
Credit is due to all original authors and no financial gain was made from the report, Simply sharing an interesting story for educational purposes,
A Resource Guide to theU.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
Credit is due to all original authors and no financial gain was made from the report, Simply sharing an interesting story for educational purposes,
The FTC takes in reports from consumers about problems they experience in the marketplace. The reportsare stored in the Consumer Sentinel Network (Sentinel), a secure online database available only to lawenforcement. While the FTC does not intervene in individual consumer disputes, its law enforcementpartners – whether they are down the street, across the nation, or around the world – can use informationin the database to spot trends, identify questionable business practices and targets, and enforce the law.
Credit is due to all original authors and no financial gain was made from the report, Simply sharing an interesting story for educational purposes,
Below is a list of consumer reporting companies updated for 2019.1 Consumer reporting companies collect information and provide reports to other companies about you. These companies use these reports to inform decisions about providing you with credit, employment, residential rental housing, insurance, and in other decision making situations. The list below includes the three nationwide consumer reporting companies and several other reporting companies that focus on certain market areas and consumer segments. The list gives you tips so you can determine which of these companies may be important to you. It also makes it easier for you to take advantage of your legal rights to (1) obtain the information in your consumer reports, and (2) dispute suspected inaccuracies in your reports with companies as needed.
Advisory to Financial Institutions on Illicit Financial Schemes and Methods R...- Mark - Fullbright
Transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), foreign fentanyl suppliers, and Internet purchasers located in the United States engage in the trafficking of fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and other synthetic opioids and the subsequent laundering of the proceeds from such illegal sales.
The mission of the IC3 is to provide the public with a reliable and convenient reporting mechanism to submit information to the FBI concerning suspected Internet-facilitated criminal activity, and to develop effective alliances with industry partners. Information is analyzed and disseminated for investigative and intelligence purposes, for law enforcement, and for public awareness.
Credit is due to all original authors and no financial gain was made from the report, Simply sharing an interesting story for educational purposes,
This report is built upon analysis of 41,686 security incidents, of which 2,013 were confirmed data breaches. We will take a look at how results are changing (or not) over the years as well as digging into the overall threat landscape and the actors, actions, and assets that are present in breaches. Windows into the most common pairs of threat actions and affected assets also are provided.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) is an independent U.S. law enforcement agency charged with protecting consumers and enhancing competition across broad sectors of the economy. The FTC’s primary legal authority comes from Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, which prohibits unfair or deceptive practices in the marketplace. The FTC also has authority to enforce a variety of sector specific laws, including the Truth in Lending Act, the CAN-SPAM Act, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act. This broad authority allows the Commission
to address a wide array of practices affecting consumers, including those that emerge with the development of new technologies and business models.
Sentinel sorts consumer reports into 29 top categories. Appendices B1 – B3 describe the categories,providing details, and three year figures. To reflect marketplace changes, new categories or subcategories are created or deleted over time.The Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book excludes the National Do Not Call Registry. A separate report about these complaint statistics is available at: https://www.ftc.gov/reports/national-do-not-call-registry-data-book-fiscal-year-2018. The Sentinel Data Book also excludes reports about unsolicited commercial email.Consumers can report as much or as little detail as they wish when they file a report. For the Sentinel Data Book graphics, percentages are based on the total number of Sentinel fraud, identity theft, and other report types in 2018 in which consumers provided the information displayed on each chart.Reports to Sentinel sometimes indicate money was lost, and sometimes indicate no money was lost.Often, people make these reports after they experience something problematic in the marketplace,avoid losing any money, and wish to alert others. Except where otherwise stated, numbers are based on reports both from people who indicated a loss and people who did not.Calculations of dollar amounts lost are based on reports in which consumers indicated they lost between $1 and $999,999. Prior to 2017, reported “amount paid” included values of $0 to $999,999.States and Metropolitan Areas are ranked based on the number of reports per 100,000 population.State rankings are based on 2017 U.S. Census population estimates (Annual Estimates of the Resident Population: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2017). Metropolitan Area rankings are based on 2016 U.S. Census population estimates (Annual Estimates of the Resident Population: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2016).This Sentinel Data Book identifies Metropolitan Areas (Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas)with a population of 100,000 or more except where otherwise noted. Metropolitan areas are defined by Office of Management and Budget Bulletin No. 15-01, “Revised Delineations of Metropolitan Statistical Areas, Micropolitan Statistical Areas, and Combined Statistical Areas, and Guidance on Uses of the Delineations of These Areas” (July 15, 2015). Numbers change over time. The Sentinel Data Book sorts consumer reports by year, based on the date of the consumer’s report. Some data contributors transfer their complaints to Sentinel after the end of the calendar year, and new data providers often contribute reports from prior years. As a result, the total number of reports for 2018 will likely change during the next few months, and totals from previous years may differ from prior Consumer Sentinel Network Data Books. The most up to date information can be found online at ftc.gov/data
A credit score is a three -digit number that predicts how likely you are to pay back a loan on time, based on information from your credit reports.
Company names mentioned herein are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners and are for educational purposes only.
Company names mentioned herein are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners and are for educational purposes only. - Medical identity theft has existed in various forms for decades, but it was in 2006 that World Privacy Forum published the first major report about the crime. The report called for medical data breach notification laws and more research about medical identity theft and its impacts. Since that time, medical data breach notification laws have been enacted, and other progress has been made, particularly in the quality of consumer complaint datasets gathered around identity theft, including medical forms of the crime. This report uses new data arising from consumer medical identity theft complaint reporting and medical data breach reporting to analyze and document the geography of medical identity theft and its growth patterns. The report also discusses new aspects of consumer harm resulting from the crime that the data has brought to light
The FTC takes in reports from consumers about problems they experience in the marketplace. The reports are stored in the Consumer Sentinel Network (Sentinel), a secure online database available only to law enforcement. While the FTC does not intervene in individual consumer disputes, its law enforcement partners – whether they are down the street, across the nation, or around the world – can use information in the database to spot trends, identify questionable business practices and targets, and enforce the law.
Since 1997, Sentinel has collected tens of millions of reports from consumers about fraud, identity theft, and other consumer protection topics. During 2017, Sentinel received nearly 2.7 million consumer reports, which the FTC has sorted into 30 top categories. The 2017 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book (Sentinel Data Book) has a vibrant new look, and a lot more information about what consumers told us last year. You'll know more about how much money people lost in the aggregate, the median amount they paid, and what frauds were most costly. And you'll know much more about complaints of identity theft, fraud, and other types of problems in each state, too. The Sentinel Data Book is based on unverified reports filed by consumers. The data is not based on a consumer survey. Sentinel has a five-year data retention policy, with reports older than five years purged biannually.
This guide addresses the steps to take once a
breach has occured. For advice on implementing a
plan to protect consumers’ personal information, to
prevent breaches and unauthorized access, check
out the FTC’s Protecting Personal Information: A
Guide for Business and Start with Security: A Guide
for Business.
*Company names mentioned herein are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners and are for educational purposes only.
Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book for January 2016 - December 2016- Mark - Fullbright
FTC Consumer Sentinel Network Law enforcement's source for consumer complaints.
All information, data, and material contained, presented, or provided on is for educational purposes only.
Company names mentioned herein are the property of, and may be trademarks of, their respective owners.
It is not to be construed or intended as providing legal advice.
This document discusses various types of identity theft such as criminal fraud, medical fraud, identity cloning, and account takeover fraud. It provides steps consumers can take to be proactive in protecting their identity such as checking their annual credit reports and credit scores. It also outlines reactive steps to take if identity theft occurs, such as placing fraud alerts on credit files and notifying creditors. Additionally, it offers tips for securing personal information on social media and important resource links for identity theft assistance and information.
THE SACRIFICE HOW PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTS STUDENTS ARE SACRIFICING TO CHANGE T...indexPub
The recent surge in pro-Palestine student activism has prompted significant responses from universities, ranging from negotiations and divestment commitments to increased transparency about investments in companies supporting the war on Gaza. This activism has led to the cessation of student encampments but also highlighted the substantial sacrifices made by students, including academic disruptions and personal risks. The primary drivers of these protests are poor university administration, lack of transparency, and inadequate communication between officials and students. This study examines the profound emotional, psychological, and professional impacts on students engaged in pro-Palestine protests, focusing on Generation Z's (Gen-Z) activism dynamics. This paper explores the significant sacrifices made by these students and even the professors supporting the pro-Palestine movement, with a focus on recent global movements. Through an in-depth analysis of printed and electronic media, the study examines the impacts of these sacrifices on the academic and personal lives of those involved. The paper highlights examples from various universities, demonstrating student activism's long-term and short-term effects, including disciplinary actions, social backlash, and career implications. The researchers also explore the broader implications of student sacrifices. The findings reveal that these sacrifices are driven by a profound commitment to justice and human rights, and are influenced by the increasing availability of information, peer interactions, and personal convictions. The study also discusses the broader implications of this activism, comparing it to historical precedents and assessing its potential to influence policy and public opinion. The emotional and psychological toll on student activists is significant, but their sense of purpose and community support mitigates some of these challenges. However, the researchers call for acknowledging the broader Impact of these sacrifices on the future global movement of FreePalestine.
How to Download & Install Module From the Odoo App Store in Odoo 17Celine George
Custom modules offer the flexibility to extend Odoo's capabilities, address unique requirements, and optimize workflows to align seamlessly with your organization's processes. By leveraging custom modules, businesses can unlock greater efficiency, productivity, and innovation, empowering them to stay competitive in today's dynamic market landscape. In this tutorial, we'll guide you step by step on how to easily download and install modules from the Odoo App Store.
CapTechTalks Webinar Slides June 2024 Donovan Wright.pptxCapitolTechU
Slides from a Capitol Technology University webinar held June 20, 2024. The webinar featured Dr. Donovan Wright, presenting on the Department of Defense Digital Transformation.
Philippine Edukasyong Pantahanan at Pangkabuhayan (EPP) CurriculumMJDuyan
(𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝟏𝟎𝟎) (𝐋𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝟏)-𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐬
𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐏𝐏 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐮𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬:
- Understand the goals and objectives of the Edukasyong Pantahanan at Pangkabuhayan (EPP) curriculum, recognizing its importance in fostering practical life skills and values among students. Students will also be able to identify the key components and subjects covered, such as agriculture, home economics, industrial arts, and information and communication technology.
𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐧 𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐫:
-Define entrepreneurship, distinguishing it from general business activities by emphasizing its focus on innovation, risk-taking, and value creation. Students will describe the characteristics and traits of successful entrepreneurs, including their roles and responsibilities, and discuss the broader economic and social impacts of entrepreneurial activities on both local and global scales.
2. The Murky Waters of the Internet: Anatomy of Malvertising and Other e-Threats
Table of Contents
ABSTRACT:............................................................................................................................................................... 3
1. MALVERTISING AND FRIENDS: THE DISSECTION ............................................................................................ 4
2. INTERNAL STRUCTURE: CATEGORIES............................................................................................................... 6
3. COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN..................................................................................................................................... 14
CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................................................................................... 15
AUTHORS:
Bianca Stanescu – Bitdefender Communication Specialist
Ionut Radu – Bitdefender Online Threats Developer
Cornel Radu – Bitdefender Online Threats Developer
[2]
3. The Murky Waters of the Internet: Anatomy of Malvertising and Other e-Threats
ABSTRACT:
Reputable companies are not the only clients of advertising platforms. Scammers are doing their
best to tap more of the commercial market. Almost 10 billion ad impressions were compromised by
malvertising in 2012, according to the Online Trust Alliance.
1
Millions of users worldwide are exposed to malware, spam, phishing or fraud (scams), and even the
most tech-savvy users can become victims. Over 100 advertising networks are serving compromised
display advertising, and malvertising incidents increased by more than 250% from Q1 2010 to Q2
2010, the OTA showed. At the same time, more than one million sites carry advertising from over
300 ad networks and exchanges, according to the IAB. If we compare figures, this means that one
in three ad networks may be serving malvertising.
2
Because such attack vectors are likely to develop in the future, a Bitdefender team decided to
investigate the anatomy of malvertising and other e-threats injected in legitimate ad networks: fraud,
spam and phishing.
We first explained the dissection process, then focused on the internal structure and web categories
of the baits injected by scammers into legitimate advertisements. The results confirm that business
and computer and software landing pages are even more lucrative than pornography.
The research also retrieved the countries where the scammy domains were registered. Some actually
belong to those countries, while others are just misplacements that cyber-criminals use to avoid
detection and law enforcement.
After drawing an alarm signal on the evolving phenomenon of malvertising, the document also offers
some guidelines to help users and advertisers avoid these e-threats. By knowing more about the
anatomy of malvertising, companies, security experts and users can better fight these emerging
security threats.
The main findings of the paper are based on the Bitdefender technologies that instantly block
phishing and fraud attempts after extracting and analyzing dangerous URLs in real time. In 2013, the
security software won an Advanced+ award from AV-Comparatives and, in 2012, was proven the
best in the industry at detecting phishing attempts after testing by the same independent analysis
firm. The antivirus leader blocks 98% percent of phishing attempts that target users of PayPal, eBay,
numerous online banks, social networks, online gaming sites, credit card data and more.
[3]
4. The Murky Waters of the Internet: Anatomy of Malvertising and Other e-Threats
1. MALVERTISING AND FRIENDS: THE DISSECTION
Malicious advertising, or malvertising, allows cyber-criminals to spread malicious files through online
publicity. In September 2009, New York Times readers were redirected to a site hosting malware
because of an injected ad. One year later, TweetMeme (which closed its doors in 2012) also suffered
a scareware attack because of malvertising. These popular examples show that malvertising has
become one of the most dangerous e-threats, as it can easily spread across a large number of
legitimate websites without compromising them directly. Moreover, silent malvertising allows
scammers to infect users with no clicking or direct interaction.
To extend the definition, spamvertising, fraudvertising, and phishvertising are used to spread spam,
fraudulent, and phishing URLs through legitimate online advertising networks and webpages.
By visiting websites affected by malvertising and other scams, users risk infection. According to the
Online Trust Alliance , cyber-criminals have two main methods to exploit advertising.
3
“An increasing trend has been to create a fictitious identity and ‘front’ purporting to be a legitimate
advertiser or advertising agency,” the OTA said. “They provide upfront payment and often approach
unsuspecting partners with the urgency of a breaking ad campaign. They simply provide the ad
creative which appear legitimate on the surface.”
The second and more “traditional approach” is to breach a vulnerable server to obtain credentials
and then compromise legitimate ads to stay undetected. According to our research, these are the
most common methods used by cyber-criminals to place malicious code through advertisements:
• Pop-up ads for fictive downloads, such as computer and software (fake movie players, toolbars,
plugins and media converters);
• Hidden and obfuscated JavaScript code;
• Malicious banners;
• Third-party advertisements through sublet ad networks and Content Delivery Networks;
• Using iframes to embed malware and to avoid detection.
These fairly new phenomena are harder to combat because cyber-criminals take advantage of two
key features of Internet advertising:
· Dynamism: online advertising is a versatile medium that allows scammers to stay undetected,
as web page content changes regularly. This open system relies on multiple parties, including
advertisers, ad networks, ad exchanges, ad services and site publishers, so cyber-criminals
can obscure their trail.
· Externalization: companies pay ad networks to distribute ads on their websites without
knowing their content and purpose. This allows cyber-criminals to pose as legitimate clients.
Some fraudulent commercials also appear because big ad networks sublet some advertorial
space to third-parties, usually smaller platforms. In this process, the smaller networks end up
placing malicious ads on reputable web sites.
Our dissection on malvertising and other e-threats ran between 23 July and 24 August 2013, when
the research team randomly selected over 70,000 ads served on nearly 150,000 web sites on the
greyer area of the Internet. To select the ads, we scanned search engines for over 50 relevant
search terms such as download cracks, lose weight now, earn money at home, free movies, free
music, games, and torrents, that regular users look for. Because ads are chameleon-like, changing
regularly, we also retested the web pages for new commercials to increase our data base.
Out of the total number of ads, 41,400 advertisements led to the same number of landing pages
with non-identical URLs. Some were composed of the same domain and path, but with different
[4]
5. The Murky Waters of the Internet: Anatomy of Malvertising and Other e-Threats
parameters. These parameters help ad networks retrieve information on user behavior, such as the
web site that initially brought users to click on the ad.
To analyze the malware, fraud, spam and phishing prevalence, we had to put the domains under the
magnifying glass. We discovered that only 15,037 unique domains were hosting the 41,400 landing
pages, which means that malvertisers and “friends” place the same baits on different web sites for
increased efficiency.
We designed a script to open the URLs with a browser emulator that simulated user behavior
by clicking on the ads and retrieving the landing pages automatically. We have also retained the
redirection chain, as most ads redirect users to two or three other web sites, which register them
as visitors to bring extra revenue to the publishers. According to our data, the bad ads usually have
more redirects than good or neutral ads.
We analyzed the initial page (client page), from the first URLs where they were redirecting to the final
landing page. After we concatenated the landing pages and applied an MD5 algorithm, we obtained
the unique list of signatures. We scanned them with the Bitdefender engines to check if they are
blacklisted. Almost 7 per cent of the landing pages analyzed was misleading, infecting users with
malware or targeting them with fraud, spam and phishing. The neutral ads represented 46%, a
percentage point less than the good ones.
4
Figure 1: Distribution of good, bad and neutral ads
After checking the reasons for blacklisting by the Bitdefender engines, we discovered most dangerous
landing pages that were advertised on multiple web sites were fraudulent URLs luring readers with
fake software, business and financial offers. After this dominant category, spam (14.89%) and
malware (14.52%) also target advertising platforms, followed by phishing, which helps scammers
gain money or personal data by mimicking web sites of legitimate companies. With only 4 per cent
prevalence, phishing is spread less through advertising networks because users are more securitysavvy than before.
In 2012, an analysis on malicious Facebook domains published by The Virus Bulletin also showed
that phishing is less distributed on the social network. The research on over 20,000 domains revealed
that cyber-criminals prefer more effective weapons, such as malware (54%) and fraud (34%), followed
by spam (11%) and phishing (1%), as a last variant.
5
Some analyzed landing pages belong to several categories. The most common combination cybercriminals abuse is phishing with a “sense” of malware. In this way, if they don’t get users’ money
and personal data through the phishing attack, they install malicious files on the system for similar
or worse repercussions. Because of potential and future security threats, Bitdefender also classified
over 9 per cent of the analyzed web pages as untrusted.
[5]
6. The Murky Waters of the Internet: Anatomy of Malvertising and Other e-Threats
Figure 2: Different types of advertising security threats and their distribution
2. INTERNAL STRUCTURE: CATEGORIES
To determine the internal structure of malvertising and other e-threats, and to distinguish the
relationships of its components, we retrieved the web categories of dangerous landing pages. Our
research shows that malvertisers make more money out of computer & software, business and
health categories, than out of pornography.
Figure 3: Most dangerous web categories promoted via malvertising and other e-threats
Similar research this year also showed that online advertising is more likely to spread malware than
porn is. According to Cisco’s 2013 Annual Security Report , online advertisements are the riskiest of
all: 182 times more likely to infect users with malware than searching the Internet for adult content.
The report also revealed that the highest concentration of online security threats is found not among
pornography, pharmaceutical, or gambling sites, but on major search engines, retail pages, and
social networks.
6
7
[6]
7. The Murky Waters of the Internet: Anatomy of Malvertising and Other e-Threats
The landing web pages were assigned to one of 19 categories, based either on the category of
the domain or on the content of that specific web page. For instance, a personal blog hosted on a
blogging platform will be categorized as a blog, but it could also be categorized as a gambling page,
based on its content.
These categories are based on the background scanning of Bitdefender technologies, which
overcame the limits of standard blacklisting, by classifying domains into 43 categories. That allows
the webfiltering module to develop intelligent and human-independent filtering techniques that
provide more accurate ratings and work faster.
Non-profitable web categories that scammers don’t usually promote through malvertising include
advice (forums), blogs, drugs, education, hacking, and hate websites. This last niche category
covers websites that encourage violence or racism. Usually blocked by parental control software,
this category includes websites that promote religious or sex discrimination, violence, xenophobic
content, and terrorism.
Here are the most lucrative web categories promoted through malware, spam, fraud and phishing
placed on legitimate ad networks, with recent screenshots and a short description for each of them.
1. Business: 20.73%
This dominant malvertising category covers
websites that promote private businesses
(corporate websites). The results made it the
most popular web category because fraudsters
create sites that pose as legitimate businesses
and target users with fake offers, usually at very
low prices.
Unlike phishing web sites created by breaching
vulnerable web sites or domains, fraud is better
crafted and has web pages registered for longer
period of times. Because they can easily be
mistaken for authentic companies, it takes longer
before they are taken down, so their uptime is
higher than that of phishing attacks .
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Examples of fraudvertising include fake offers
for online garage sales, web hosting or satellite
services.
2. Computers and software: 20.29%
This category covers websites that provide
computer information, software or internetrelated services. Malvertising in this category
included a fake Disney website that promoted
sexually explicit cartoons. Other dangerous ads
led users to fictive downloading for SEO plugins,
video convertors and cursors.
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8. The Murky Waters of the Internet: Anatomy of Malvertising and Other e-Threats
3. Gambling: 12.84%
This category covers online casino or lottery
websites, which usually require money transfer
before users can gamble. Dangerous landing
pages found on ad networks trick users into
sending their money and personal data with
no chance to win. “Gambling” web pages also
include “beating tips and cheats” web sites,
which describe how to make money this way.
4. Health: 12.7%
The fourth popular malvertising category typically
covers websites associated with medical
institutions, disease prevention and treatment,
and websites that promote weight loss and
pharmaceutical products, diets, etc. Malicious
ads in this category offer miraculous tricks for
“a tiny belly,” fraudulent detox medication and
weight loss advice presented in the form of news.
5. News: 9.97%
This category covers news websites that provide
journalistic text, video content or newsletter
services. It includes both global and local news
websites. Our research showed that one in 10
dangerous landing pages were offering content
presented as news. Typical fraudvertising cases
include fake newsletter offers and weight-loss
tips presented by a medical news “reporter.”
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9. The Murky Waters of the Internet: Anatomy of Malvertising and Other e-Threats
6. File Sharing: 5.54%
This category includes web pages that allow
users to share or store files online. Some dubious
websites promoted through advertising are used
for fraud, identity theft or malware infections, after
luring users with fictitious software downloads.
7. Pornography: 5%
This category typically covers websites containing erotic and pornographic content (text, pictures
or video). For accurate blacklisting, it may also detect erotic content on mixed websites classified in
multiple categories.
8. Games: 4.78%
This category covers websites with game
presentations, reviews, and online games such
as Flash-based applications. It also includes
websites that offer the possibility of buying or
downloading non-browser based games. Nonlegitimate game websites promoted through
malvertising lead users to fake downloads and
fraudulent surveys.
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10. The Murky Waters of the Internet: Anatomy of Malvertising and Other e-Threats
9. Illegal: 2.5%
This category covers websites related to software
piracy, including peer-to-peer and tracker websites
known as distribution channels for copyright
content, pirated commercial software websites
and discussion boards, as well as websites
providing cracks, key generators and serial
numbers for illegal software use. Illegal websites
promoted through advertisements may lead users
to malicious downloads and fraudulent URLs.
10. Job Search: 2%
This category covers websites presenting job
boards, job-related classified ads and career
opportunities, as well as aggregators of such
services. In the case of malvertising and other
e-threats, the most common traps are job scams
that ask users for money and personal details
so they can follow their “American dream.”
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11. The Murky Waters of the Internet: Anatomy of Malvertising and Other e-Threats
11. Online Shop: 1.76%
This category includes online stores and platforms
that sell different goods or services. The typical
threat infiltrating legitimate ad networks is once
again fraud - scammers put up fake shops,
register them on reputable TLDs such as “.com”
and even design them better than some authentic
ones. Poorly crafted online shops may also be
breached by phishers, who can then steal users’
money and sensitive data.
12. Online Dating: 0.74%
This category typically covers paid or free
websites where users register to find a dating
partner or a new relationship. An extension of the
social networks category, online dating is typically
misused to steal users’ personal details and to
help social engineers craft human data bases.
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12. The Murky Waters of the Internet: Anatomy of Malvertising and Other e-Threats
13. Financial (Banks): 0.73%
This category covers the websites of all banks and
financial institutions, including loan companies,
credit card agencies, and companies in charge
of brokerage of securities or other financial
contracts. One recent scam promoted through
malvertising was a fake loan web site that got
almost 200,000 Facebook likes.
14. Travel: 0.25%
This category covers websites that offer travel
facilities and equipment as well as destination
reviews and ratings. Anti-fraud technologies
blacklist fake websites in this category if they
discover they were registered to trick users with
fraudulent offers. Recently, a Dubai promotion
web site was being advertised through malicious
techniques.
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13. The Murky Waters of the Internet: Anatomy of Malvertising and Other e-Threats
15. Portals 0.19%
This category covers websites that aggregate
information from various sources and domains.
Portals also offer features such as search engines,
e-mail, news and entertainment information.
Here’s how a recent malvertised portal looked:
16. Instant Messaging: 0.08%
This category covers websites where users can chat in real time or download IM software. Such
websites may be included in several other categories, such as pornography.
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14. The Murky Waters of the Internet: Anatomy of Malvertising and Other e-Threats
17. Webmail (0.06%), Entertainment (0.04%), Social Networks (0.04%)
These three less popular malvertising categories cover websites that provide e-mail functionality as
web applications, websites that provide information related to artistic activities, and social media
websites.
3. COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN
Research on ad networks also showed the top countries of origin for malvertising web sites. Most
malvertising and other e-threats originate from the US, the Netherlands and Canada. This doesn’t
necessarily mean that cyber-criminals are residents of those countries, as they can easily register
web sites in any place they want to hide from law enforcement. We also discovered malicious web
sites registered in remote islands.
Figure 3: Countries of origin for Malvertising and other e-threats
GUIDELINES
To lessen the chances of getting tricked by malicious and fraudulent advertisements, users and ad
networks can take several precautions:
Before activating commercials on their web sites, companies and ad networks should carefully check
their origin and legitimacy.
To verify if a website is authentic, users and companies can look for WhoIS information to see if
the web page is hosted in the country where the company is based. Most fraudulent web sites are
registered for just a year, and this can also be a sign. Also, if a website was created from a private
e-mail address such as contact@privacyprotect.org or john@yahoo.com, it’s almost certainly a scam.
To prevent malvertising effects, keep your antivirus updated, together with your operating system
and other software. Dangerous websites inserted in advertising platforms can’t download malicious
files if a security solution is installed and up to date.
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15. The Murky Waters of the Internet: Anatomy of Malvertising and Other e-Threats
CONCLUSIONS
Research showed that almost 7 per cent of landing pages multiplying on advertising platforms
pose serious dangers to computer users. The most dominant malicious category of all malvertising
e-threats is fraud, which takes the form of fake software offers, business and financial scams. In
addition, users are targeted by malware injected in legitimate ads, which helps cyber-criminals stay
undetected longer. By using their baits on multiple advertising platforms, scammers also multiply
their chances of making money with minimal effort.
Another pertinent conclusion is that the highest concentration of online security threats promoted
through advertising are found not among pornography and online dating, but on business and
computer websites.
In conclusion, users and other stakeholders should be more careful when dealing with online
advertisements. If the inner structure of the system continues to be this open, with so many parties
involved and without firm security scanning, cyber-criminals will take advantage more often of
companies, advertising platforms and end-users.
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