AD TECH AND MARTECH
Human Security | September 26, 2022
HUMAN Security, Inc. (formerly White Ops), the global leader in safeguarding enterprises from digital attacks with modern defense, today announced the discovery and disruption of a highly sophisticated fraud operation targeting advertising software development kits (SDKs) within 9 apps on the Apple App Store and 80 Android apps on the Google Play Store, which collectively have been downloaded more than 13 million times. The attack, nicknamed Scylla, is an adaptation of a fraud scheme first observed and disrupted by HUMAN’s Satori Threat Intelligence and Research Team in 2019. While the attack is ongoing and actively being monitored by the Satori team, HUMAN has collaborated with Apple, Google and others to take down the fraudulent apps from their respective app stores.
“Our number one goal is to protect our customers and the digital ecosystem from cybercriminals such as those behind these attacks. The only way we can do this is with modern defense where we can work together across the industry on disruptions like Scylla,” said HUMAN Co-Founder and CEO Tamer Hassan.
“Our number one goal is to protect our customers and the digital ecosystem from cybercriminals such as those behind these attacks. The only way we can do this is with modern defense where we can work together across the industry on disruptions like Scylla,” said HUMAN Co-Founder and CEO Tamer Hassan. “We will continue to remain vigilant for other similar attacks and harness the work of collective protection—where an attack on one is a protection event for all—disrupting the economics of cybercrime. That’s the only way we win. ”
Scylla is the third wave of an operation HUMAN first uncovered in 2019, in which a collection of 40+ Android apps openly committed multiple types of ad fraud. That scheme, nicknamed Poseidon after elements of the code within the apps, was disrupted by the Satori team’s reverse engineering efforts, resulting in Google removing the apps from its Play Store. A 2020 adaptation of the scheme, nicknamed Charybdis after the daughter of Poseidon, incorporated additional code obfuscation and SDK targeting techniques.
Today’s announcement of the disruption of Scylla—named after the granddaughter of Poseidon—reflects a new evolution from the threat actors behind the scheme. While the Poseidon and Charybdis operations centered wholly on Android apps, the Satori team has found evidence that Scylla additionally targets iOS apps and has expanded the attack to other parts of the digital advertising ecosystem.
HUMAN’s Satori team worked closely with the Google Play Store and Apple App Store to ensure all of the apps identified as being associated with the Scylla operation have been removed from public access. HUMAN also closely collaborated with impacted advertising SDK developers to mitigate the impact of the operation to their processes and their advertising partners. Customers of HUMAN’s MediaGuard solution are protected from fraud associated with Scylla and with its predecessors.
Apps within the Scylla operation committed fraud through a variety of tactics, including:
App spoofing, in which the Scylla apps pretended to be other apps for the purpose of digital advertising,
Hidden ads, in which the apps would render advertisements in places a user couldn’t actually see them, and
Fake clicks, in which the apps would keep track of real clicks on advertisements in order to fake additional clicks later.
These tactics, combined with the obfuscation techniques first observed in the Charybdis operation, demonstrate the increased sophistication of the threat actors behind Scylla. This is an ongoing attack, and users should consult the list of apps in the report and consider removing them from all devices. As this attack has evolved multiple times already, the Satori team has withheld certain details about the operation in order to better track and report on further adaptation.
HUMAN verifies the humanity of more than 15 trillion digital interactions per week, offering enterprises a platform with unmatched visibility into fraudulent activity across the Internet. HUMAN achieves this scale through its continued expansion in cybersecurity, including its recent merger with PerimeterX, now offering a suite of products to protect the complete digital customer journey. With new partners and enterprises now able to leverage the Human Defense Platform, comes an even deeper understanding of the cybercrime landscape, enabling HUMAN to adapt continuously, staying ahead of adversaries with modern defense (leveraging internet visibility, network effect, and disruptions), and safeguarding clients with collective protection against threat models they have yet to encounter.
The Satori team used numerous tools to identify Scylla and its operators, whose information has been shared with law enforcement. To learn more about the Scylla operation, visit the HUMAN blog.
About HUMAN
HUMAN is a cybersecurity company that safeguards 500+ customers from digital attacks including sophisticated bots, fraud and account abuse. We leverage modern defense—internet visibility, network effect, and disruptions—to enable our customers to increase ROI and trust while decreasing end-user friction, data contamination, and cybersecurity exposure.Today we verify the humanity of more than 15 trillion interactions per week across advertising, marketing, e-commerce, government, education and enterprise security, putting us in a position to win against cybercriminals. Protect your digital business with HUMAN. To Know Who’s Real, visit www.humansecurity.com.
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AD NETWORKS
605, Conviva | September 22, 2022
605, a global leader in television and cross-platform measurement, analytics and attribution, announced today a data and technology collaboration agreement with Conviva, the leading streaming analytics platform. This collaboration will bring de-duplicated, standardized data to video and advertising industry customers worldwide, enabling full-census measurement of content and advertising across premium video. Standardizing publisher first-party streaming data as the foundation for 605’s cross-platform measurement reporting, at scale, will enable new levels of analysis, accuracy and data actionability to drive meaningful outcomes.
The agreement leverages Conviva's census-level, streaming analytics pipeline, which standardizes, cleanses and normalizes in real time to deliver accurate and contextual data at scale and 605's linear and time-shifted data, to create content and advertising measurement and attribution outputs for publishers, agencies and brands. This new approach will bring a more accurate and comprehensive perspective to customer insights on media consumption.
Kristin Dolan, CEO of 605, commented, “For too long measurement in the U.S. has been fragmented and incapable of giving either the sell-side or the buy-side a consistent view of ad and content consumption in U.S. households."
Kristin Dolan, CEO of 605, commented, “For too long measurement in the U.S. has been fragmented and incapable of giving either the sell-side or the buy-side a consistent view of ad and content consumption in U.S. households. Through our collaboration with Conviva we will provide programmers, brands and agencies with timely and meaningful metrics to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their content and advertising.”
605’s multi-source deterministic viewership dataset measures 34 million households across over 200 U.S. markets. The Conviva platform processes nearly 3 trillion streaming data events daily, supporting more than 500 million unique viewers watching 180 billion streams per year across 3.3 billion applications streaming on devices.
“The industry and leading publishers worldwide have come to expect accurate and contextualized streaming data, at Internet scale, from Conviva. As a streaming analytics company, we’re focused on helping anyone who wants to standardize their data and make it actionable in real time,” said Marc Goldstein, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Conviva. “This agreement with 605 will accelerate cross-platform video measurement initiatives, making available real-time streaming analytics directly to advertising ecosystem measurement and attribution partners."
About 605
605 is an independent TV measurement and analytics firm that offers advertising and content measurement, attribution, planning, optimization and analytical solutions including a new media trading currency to allow willing buyers and sellers of media to transact. 605’s multi-source deterministic viewership dataset measures 34 million households across over 200 U.S. markets and offers whole-home TV viewing visibility by combining the best attributes of set-top box and ACR data. 605 is unique in that its dataset supports 100 percent deterministic audience measurement at the household level while being reportable second by second with proprietary projection methodologies, all in a privacy compliant manner.
About Conviva
Conviva is the only global streaming analytics platform for big data that collects, standardizes, and puts trillions of streaming data points in context, in real time. With Conviva, streaming businesses can understand real-world human experiences within seconds of observation and take action to grow their business ahead of the competition. The Conviva platform provides comprehensive, continuous, census-level measurement through real-time, server side sessionization at scale. It includes first-of-its kind-innovations like time-state analytics and AI automated data modeling. Using a single full stack sensor at the source, coupled with a single big data pipeline, Conviva’s 60+ patent platform enables marketers, advertisers, tech ops, engineering and customer care teams to acquire, engage, monetize and retain their audiences. Conviva is dedicated to supporting brands like DAZN, Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+, Peacock, Sky, Sling TV, TED and WarnerMedia as they unlock incredible opportunity with streaming analytics. To learn more, visit www.conviva.com.
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PROGRAMMATIC ADVERTISING
MediaGo, Baidu Global | September 21, 2022
Baidu’s Global Business Unit will be attending DMEXCO 2022 to demonstrate recent technological and service updates of MediaGo, an AI-integrated marketing platform that provides global cross-media integrated marketing solutions, including programmatic advertising, advertising reselling, and AI-backed recommendations for more than 10,000 companies.
“We are excited that in-person conferences are back, and we are able to meet with our European partners and discuss how MediaGo can continue helping them improve their ad performance, expand globally and enhance their international influence,” said Elaine Hu, Head of U.S. Strategy and Partnership at Baidu’s Global Business Unit.
“We are excited that in-person conferences are back, and we are able to meet with our European partners and discuss how MediaGo can continue helping them improve their ad performance, expand globally and enhance their international influence,” said Elaine Hu, Head of U.S. Strategy and Partnership at Baidu’s Global Business Unit. “MediaGo offers our advertising partners trusted, compliant EU inventory, and we are committed to building an AI advertising engine that leverages media context to achieve precision marketing.”
By leveraging Baidu’s technology and leadership position, MediaGo has secured in-depth strategic partnerships with unique, non-commoditized supply partners such as MSN, Snapchat, Pinterest and Reddit to provide customers with faster and more valuable media placement resources, helping companies to grow rapidly. MediaGo provides advertisers with access to more than 100 high-quality websites, including news portals, entertainment, sports, vertical publications, and more. All told, MediaGo can reach more than one billion high-value users around the world.
To schedule an appointment during DMEXCO on Sept. 21 or 22 at the Baidu MediaGo networking space (Hall 8, Stand 081M002), please contact: ext_gbu_eu@baidu.com.
About MediaGo
MediaGo is a global AI-integrated marketing platform under the Baidu Global brand that helps clients to rapidly expand into the global market and enhance international influence. Available to customers in East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North America, MediaGo provides cross-media integrated marketing solutions, including programmatic advertising, advertising reselling and AI-backed recommendations to more than 10,000 companies. MediaGo is committed to building an AI advertising engine that leverages media context to achieve precision marketing in the modern era. To learn more about MediaGo, please visit: https://www.mediago.io.
About Baidu Global
Baidu Global is the international AI business growth engine under Baidu brand, providing global users with intelligent Internet services in multiple scenarios. Baidu Global covers more than 200 countries and regions around the world. With its strong localized operation capabilities, Baidu Global integrates global high-quality resources and offers a powerful engine that helps partners achieve rapid growth.
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