• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, June 7, 2019

Ad fraud detection and prevention specialist Integral Ad Science (IAS) this week announced the launch of a new service focused on fraudulent connected TV (CTV) advertising.

The service, which was developed in a beta for marketer Verizon, initially is tracking ad fraud across eight participating CTV ad suppliers, including CBS Interactive and NBCUniversal.

IAS did not disclose the other six participating media companies, but during a webinar on Thursday representatives said the company is focused on “working with the largest publishers directly,” and to stay tuned for additional partner announcements soon.

Initially, IAS’ CTV fraud detection service will focus only on video ads served on connected TVs, but it eventually plans to track fraudulent display advertising too.

The IAS webinar focused on educating users about the various definitions of CTV ad fraud, as well as the methods and vectors for disseminating it.

The IAS executives said they have been utilizing rigorous standards developed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s VAST specifications to identify “signals” that can be used to track and weed out fraudulent CTV ad delivery.

For its purposes, IAS is defining CTV ad fraud as invalid traffic of spoofed ads attributed to CTV advertising rendered on TVs via three methods: gaming consoles, streaming devices and smart TVs.

The executives said that developing solutions is challenging and likely would be an ongoing process as fraudsters constantly innovate new methods as technology changes and evolves over time. They also IAS is currently focused on four primary vectors: malicious CTV apps downloaded by users from various app stores, SSAI (server-side ad insertion) traffic, bots, and “fake publishers/networks.”