Anti Malvertising Policy
The Mission:
Digital East strives to prevent malvertising that compromises in all of its and partners’ ad properties.
What is Malvertising(Malware + Advertising):
Cyber-criminals attempt to utilize both display advertising as well as ad landing pages to distribute several forms of malware. Possible vectors of attack include malicious code hidden within an ad creative, auto-redirecting ads leading to phishing/malware pages that load exploits, click baiting that sends users to social engineering content.
Our philosophy is to identify threats and keep them out, we can make the web a safer place for everyone.
Malware(Malicious Software):
The term “malware,” derived from “malicious software,” refers to any software specifically designed to harm a device or network. Because malware can potentially steal sensitive information like credit card numbers or passwords from your computer, send fake emails from your email account, and more, it is often referred to as “crimeware.”
Malware can be installed on a computer, with or without your knowledge, in a number of ways – usually when you visit a contaminated website or download seemingly innocent software. It can also be designed to infect your internet browser(s) via silent extensions and/or add-ons.
The term “malware” may also sometimes be used to encompass other types of abuse, such as phishing and social engineering. Phishing and social engineering is the masquerading of a fraudulent entity as a trustworthy entity in order to acquire sensitive information, such as passwords or credit card numbers.
The How:
1. We take it very seriously – malvertising is a threat to our industry, our brand, our user-base and revenue stream.
2. We work closely with third party scanners to scan and verify each tag for 48 hours before they go live. We make sure that the verification is done closely on all targeting parameters (Geo, Device medium etc).
3. Post going live, the tags are scanned continously each hour and every hour, till they are active in the system.
4. The details:
a. Real time protection
b. Comprehensive threat protection
c. As soon as we detect anything, the first step is to block it. Once blocked, we then analyse the error.
d. Analyse the complete history including delivery path, pre-click and post-click
5. We record:
a. Exact time of incident
b. Geo-location of user (especially Country)
c. Browser and user agent used
Detailed description of attack
6. We share the incident report along with all possible details with the advertiser and demand an explanation.
What Next:
Once a malware has been detected in the system, based on the contract we have signed with the customer, Digital East has all legal rights to penalize the customer. Penalties include:
1. Any deposit done with Digital East is forfeited immediately.
2. Digital East can legally demand for compensation for loss of business, loss of network relationship & loss of revenue from customer.
3. In addition to the above penalties, Digital East can also legally demand compensation for any legal disputes and penalties there after which can arise due to this malware activity.
4. We report the customer and the advertiser to all securities companies. We report this to Google also at https://anti-malvertising.withgoogle.com/report.
