• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, July 12, 2018

GeoEdge, which provides ad security and verification software, has built real-time malware-blocking technology into its platform, allowing publishers to monitor and keep ads that might have malicious code from serving up on their sites.

The update, Real-Time Blocking for Publishers, identifies malicious code in real-time through behavioral and heuristic detection and helps to prevent advertisers from buying media space that is filled with malware. Each campaign is cross-checked using a real-time reputation feed that is continually updated by using aggregate data from publishers. The engine also detects quality issues to prevent offensive ads from serving, like the one found last week on at least four sites run by an unnamed publisher in UK, Germany, Canada, Norway and South Korea. The ad -- with the headline “Date A Rich Woman” -- was served via header bidding by four different ad networks, explained Ido Peled, director of product management at GeoEdge, in an email to MediaPost.

In May, Media Trust reported seeing malware in HTML5 ads -- about 21 separate incidents -- hitting dozens of global digital media publishers and at least 15 ad networks.

GeoEdge aims to stop malicious ads from ever making it to the publisher’s site, so visitors never see them.

Auto-redirects also create a common problem. The platform can detect when an ad will automatically redirect click, and the person clicking on it, to another site when the advertisement gets served via header bidding.

This type of redirect takes the person clicking on the ad automatically to another site without any intended interaction. Typically, the impact means losing the visitor to another site because of a negative experience, and it often ends by exposing the site visitor to phishing or other malicious activity.

For example, in an incident that began July 10 via header bidding, the same source that caused the click to automatically redirect the person to another site was detected and blocked before the ad served in 22 events in the U.S. on one website.

Internal data suggests  that18 hours after blocking malicious ad attacks, GeoEdge’s publisher clients experienced a reduction of between 70% and 80%  in malicious ad campaigns.

Publishers also can use this type of technology to prevent negative experiences because the culprits see the failed attack and continue on to other sites.