Most malicious ads target Windows users

Most malicious ads target Windows users, according to statistics. Chrome OS is the second on the list, while Linux is the last. Devcon, a cyber-security company, discovered that 61% of the malicious ads observed by the company between July and November aimed Windows users.

This included campaigns “designed to redirect the user to malicious sites or to trick the user into downloading a piece of malware.” The reason is very simple: Windows has a huge market share. In fact, most of the malware in the last 30 years targeted Windows devices.

The statistics also bring a surprising result: malvertising campaigns have targeted ChromeOS in a surprising numbers. 22% of the malicious ads observed targeted Chrome OS. Then, the other OSs were aimed: macOS (10.5%), iOS (3.2%), Android (2.1%), and iPadOS (0.8%). The least targeted was Linux – 0.3% of the recorded malicious ads. The explanation is that Linux systems are mainly used as servers. So, there is not a surprise that most of these mischiveous ads target Windows users. 

Malicious ads are everywhere

As Bit Guardian mentioned, Confiant also published a report last week. The specialists discovered that every ad platform would have its platform abused by malvertisers, at one point or another. Although it did not name them, the company discovered that almost 60% of all the malicious ads in Q3 2019 came from just three ad platforms alone.

Confiant, looked at the entire ecosystem, and the source of these malicious ads. For this, the company analyzed more than 120 billion ad impressions published in Q3 2019 (from July 1 to September 30, 2019) via 75 advertising networks – SSPs (supply-side platforms).

Although some ad networks fight against abuse and implement security measures all the time, some other platforms seem to tolerate malvertisers on a regular basis.

The company representatives consider that any SSP should be able to detect an ongoing malvertising attack. Mainly because this kind of campaigns are able to swallow up up to 13.84% of a platform’s entire ad impressions.