Google Ads has long been a centerpiece of the company’s search strategy. By allowing advertisers to boost promotions, it’s provided a consistent and sizable revenue stream for the search giant and their parent company, Alphabet. It’s also provided something of a win-win for companies and organizations to be featured prominently in highly targeted search results that they may not have ranked for otherwise.
Unfortunately, cybercriminals seem to have figured out how to game the advertising platforms.
In recent months, numerous malware strains have been found linked to the ads through innocuous-looking paid placements often disguised as widely used software programs. Despite Google’s advertiser verification requirements, it appears as though cybercrime syndicates are able to set up malicious ads with relative ease.
While the sophistication of the methods may vary, the one consistent thread is that cybercriminals either rely on newly-registered domain names or obfuscating the final landing pages linked to ads.
Until Google is able to bolster its defenses against malvertising on its ad platform, it’s a good idea to avoid clicking on paid search results, especially for downloading software.
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