Ad industry launches cybersecurity intelligence

The Trustworthy Accountability Group says it will take on a new cybersecurity role as the first information-sharing and analysis organization in the digital ad industry.

Digital advertisers’ Trustworthy Accountability Group said it will take on a new cybersecurity role as the first information-sharing and analysis organization in the industry.

“Despite the widespread vulnerabilities facing digital advertising — including ad-distributed malware, malicious pirate sites, and security holes exploited by fraud — there has not been an official ISAO to help coordinate the digital ad industry’s response to those threats to this point,” Andrew Weinstein, a spokesperson for the group, said.

TAG’s announcement comes the same day of the discovery of Judy malware, auto-clicking adware that reached over 4.5 million downloads in the Google Play store across 41 apps. The infecting apps were recently removed by Google after several years on the store.

Malware cuts into the advertising industry’s bottom line.  In addition to slowing connections and distracting users, malvertising can pose serious cybersecurity risks and deliver downright dangerous payloads.

Making ads more secure raises the possibility that users won’t have to block them out of fear of attack. Many security experts recommend ad blockers, and those tools have surged 30 percent in usage in the last year.

TAG is creating a malware threat-sharing hub, a data center IP list of fraud threats and a compliance officer network to share near-real time intelligence within the industry and with law enforcement.

“As digital threats grow, we all must continue to adapt and innovate. TAG has added yet another tool in the fight against fraud and exploitation in the digital realm,” FBI agent David Farquhar, a Deputy Director at the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, said in a statement.

TAG is run by the biggest advertising companies on the planet including Facebook, Google, AOL/Verizon, Disney, NBCUniversal and Warner Bros.

Government

• FBI officials say AI is bolstering adversaries, emphasizing need to focus on cyber basics, patching

• Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models

• CIA’s Michael Ellis says cyber intelligence is changing how the agency operates

• Jail time for Maine child in 764 marks turning point in federal law enforcement

Technology

• FCC proposes public scorecard to rate telecoms on anti-robocall efforts

• Pegasus, NoviSpy variant spyware found on devices of Serbian activists

• Wyden seeks upgraded NSA security guidance on commercial VPN use

• The Collective Cyber Defense letter wrote your next vendor questionnaire

Threats

• Chinese espionage groups swarm to exploit triple-link chain of zero-days

• Microsoft discloses two actively exploited zero-days among 974 vulnerabilities

• Russian national extradited to US for alleged involvement in bank-account takeover scheme

• Attackers exploit zero-days in consistently besieged SonicWall product

Policy

• Whistleblower says USPS deploying new, ‘untested’ IT systems governing mail-in ballots

• ‘Watershed 250’ test program in Texas looks to private sector for water cybersecurity help

• Former sexual abuse victims say Grok used their images, videos to train deepfake capabilities

• Cyber threats nudge Trump to sign executive order on foreign equipment in U.S. energy infrastructure