Security and Risk Online: Cyber Gang of Russia Collected Millions through Fake-Ad Scam

abcnews.go.com posted on December 20th, 2016, quoting a firm which specializes in detection of online-ad fraud as saying that a criminal group of Russia is running huge fraud which has been stealing millions of digital advertising dollars per day for the last few months.

It is estimated that billions of dollars were lost in a year due to fake traffic, fraudulent clicks, and various other scams. But there is little motivation to stop it because of the manner the online-advertising market is structured with many layers of middlemen and ad-networks.

In fact, the growth of sophisticated bot-nets and other types of click fraud is one of the reasons why less than half of all Internet ads are even seen by humans, according to a research conducted by comScore in 2013, an online analytics firm.

White Ops, a New York-based firm, has named the operation "Methbot" because of references to meth hidden in the computer code underlying the scam, and said it is the biggest and most profitable fraud operation yet to assault digital advertising. The company said that the scam is believed to originate from Russia using a so-called bot net to fake views of as many as 300 million video ads per day and trick advertisers to pay for views which were never seen by humans.

While Methbot had its own devoted servers running its software, several bot-nets are created out of ordinary PCs owned by innocent victims, who download "malware" or malicious programs from the Internet. Software can be installed in the background by clicking on a link or a popup ad which then captures the computer for different purposes.

As hacking by Russian government dominating headlines all over the world, Michael Triffany, CEO of White Ops, said that this scam is perhaps not being run by the Kremlin although it has massive size and sophistication.

White Ops said that to fight the fraud, it will release known IP addresses associated with Methbot to enable advertisers and their agencies to block them. The company added that it will release a fake domain name and full URL list to show where this phony activity has been taking place.

Online Security: 2016 Holiday Shopping Fraud Report Shows Bitcoin Remains Most Secure

In the end, it goes to show traditional payment methods suffer from a lot of security issues.

During the 2016 holiday weekend, global online sales have seen a significant nudge upwards. At the same time, payment card fraud increased by a whopping 20%. Consumer’s financial details are always at risk when dealing with payment cards these days. Bitcoin is a far safer option, as there is no sensitive personal information leaked during the transaction process.

The rise in payment fraud during the 2016 holiday shopping season is not surprising. Both Black Friday and Cyber Monday saw an influx of global customers. However, this transaction volume makes it harder to determine which transactions are legitimate. But the concerns ago much deeper, as five types of fraud reports were filed.

First of all, there is credit card fraud. Everyone knows payment cards are inherently insecure, and provide significant risks to both owner and retailer. Very few companies perform thorough checks of payment card data when processing an order, making life easier for criminals shopping online.

Bitcoin Remains the Safe Way To Shop Online

Identity theft is another major concern, particularly during the holiday season. Vast amounts of personal information are floating around on the Internet, and criminals will sniff out sensitive details with relative ease. Thanks to email scams, which complete the top three, users are often tricked into giving up that type of information as well.

Promotion abuse is another popular trend, although its impact can often be negated. Users will experience annoyance through this type of fraud, but it should not affect them in a significant manner. Account takeover, on the other hand, is far more troublesome. Hacked social media profiles become far more common during the holiday season. Mostly due to consumers being more careless with their passwords.

During Black Friday and Cyber Monday, mobile transactions were on the rise as well. Although mobile devices are commonly used for payments, they are not secure. Malware, scareware, and remote access trojans are just a few of the looming threats. Consumers storing payment information on these devices are at risk at any given time.

In the end, it goes to show traditional payment methods suffer from a lot of security issues. Bitcoin is a more secure solution, as no sensitive information can be obtained by analyzing transactions. Unfortunately, cryptocurrency is not as widespread when it comes to online shopping. But that situation can change at any given moment.