While bad actors siphon ad spend through malvertising, the IAB arms the digital advertising industry with ways of fighting these nefarious practices. However, spotting malvertising can be a challenge. In this post, we cover what malvertising is, how the IAB’s Buyers.json and DemandChain Object contribute to greater supply chain transparency, and what that means in the fight against malvertising.
The fight against malvertising
Malvertising happens when a legitimate ad is infected with a virus or hijacked by malicious actors and displayed on a publisher’s site. According to Confiant, up to 1 in 330 ads fall victim to malvertising. These attacks not only harm the digital ad ecosystem and consumers alike but also waste ad spend and tarnish publishers’ reputations. So how has the programmatic ecosystem reduced the prevalence of malvertising?
Supply chain transparency
Increased transparency in the programmatic supply chain has made it easier to spot malicious buyers and reduce instances of malvertising. On the sell side, publishers use ads.txt to show which SSPs and resellers can auction off their inventory. SSPs host sellers.json files that provide transparency into which sellers are direct sellers or intermediaries.
But what about the buy side? Unfortunately, transparency initiatives like ads.txt have been lacking on the buy-side until the IAB’s introduction of buyers.json and DemandChain object.
Support for IAB’s buyers.json and DemandChain Object
Buyers.json and DemandChain Object aim to enable DSPs to become more transparent and help supply partners reduce malvertising by identifying the potential buyers behind these attacks. However, these standards require buy-in from all sides of the ad tech supply chain to succeed.
By implementing buyers.json, any organization between the DSP and publisher can transparently show who the buyers are that they represent. This allows SSPs and publishers to identify any problematic buyers or malvertising attacks across their demand chain and take appropriate action. With DemandChain Object, sellers can see any party involved in buying an embedded creative for any bid.
The fight against malvertising necessitates a multi-faceted approach that combines supply chain transparency and industry-wide adoption of standards like buyers.json. As the programmatic ecosystem continues to evolve, a collective commitment to transparency, accountability, and the integration of tools such as buyers.json and DemandChain Object emerges as the linchpin in safeguarding the digital advertising space from the insidious threats posed by malvertising.
By fortifying the defenses on both the sell and buy sides, the industry can foster a more resilient and trustworthy environment, ultimately preserving the integrity of digital advertising for publishers and consumers alike. The inclusion of buyers.json, with its structured framework for revealing the intricacies of programmatic buying, plays a pivotal role in enhancing visibility and facilitating proactive identification and isolation of potential sources of malvertising.
As stakeholders collaborate to embrace and implement these standards, a united front against malvertising becomes more achievable, paving the way for a more secure and trustworthy digital advertising landscape.
Contact us to learn more about protecting your ad spend from malvertising with Sharethrough.
While bad actors siphon ad spend through malvertising, the IAB arms the digital advertising industry with ways of fighting these nefarious practices. However, spotting malvertising can be a challenge. In this post, we cover what malvertising is, how the IAB’s Buyers.json and DemandChain Object contribute to greater supply chain transparency, and what that means in the fight against malvertising.
The fight against malvertising
Malvertising happens when a legitimate ad is infected with a virus or hijacked by malicious actors and displayed on a publisher’s site. According to Confiant, up to 1 in 330 ads fall victim to malvertising. These attacks not only harm the digital ad ecosystem and consumers alike but also waste ad spend and tarnish publishers’ reputations. So how has the programmatic ecosystem reduced the prevalence of malvertising?
Supply chain transparency
Increased transparency in the programmatic supply chain has made it easier to spot malicious buyers and reduce instances of malvertising. On the sell side, publishers use ads.txt to show which SSPs and resellers can auction off their inventory. SSPs host sellers.json files that provide transparency into which sellers are direct sellers or intermediaries.
But what about the buy side? Unfortunately, transparency initiatives like ads.txt have been lacking on the buy-side until the IAB’s introduction of buyers.json and DemandChain object.
Support for IAB’s buyers.json and DemandChain Object
Buyers.json and DemandChain Object aim to enable DSPs to become more transparent and help supply partners reduce malvertising by identifying the potential buyers behind these attacks. However, these standards require buy-in from all sides of the ad tech supply chain to succeed.
By implementing buyers.json, any organization between the DSP and publisher can transparently show who the buyers are that they represent. This allows SSPs and publishers to identify any problematic buyers or malvertising attacks across their demand chain and take appropriate action. With DemandChain Object, sellers can see any party involved in buying an embedded creative for any bid.
The fight against malvertising necessitates a multi-faceted approach that combines supply chain transparency and industry-wide adoption of standards like buyers.json. As the programmatic ecosystem continues to evolve, a collective commitment to transparency, accountability, and the integration of tools such as buyers.json and DemandChain Object emerges as the linchpin in safeguarding the digital advertising space from the insidious threats posed by malvertising.
By fortifying the defenses on both the sell and buy sides, the industry can foster a more resilient and trustworthy environment, ultimately preserving the integrity of digital advertising for publishers and consumers alike. The inclusion of buyers.json, with its structured framework for revealing the intricacies of programmatic buying, plays a pivotal role in enhancing visibility and facilitating proactive identification and isolation of potential sources of malvertising.
As stakeholders collaborate to embrace and implement these standards, a united front against malvertising becomes more achievable, paving the way for a more secure and trustworthy digital advertising landscape.
Contact us to learn more about protecting your ad spend from malvertising with Sharethrough.
Behind Headlines: 180 Seconds in Ad Tech is a short 3-minute podcast exploring the news in the digital advertising industry. Ad tech is a fast-growing industry with many updates happening daily. As it can be hard for most to keep up with the latest news, the Sharethrough team wanted to create an audio series compiling notable mentions each week.
While bad actors siphon ad spend through malvertising, the IAB arms the digital advertising industry with ways of fighting these nefarious practices. However, spotting malvertising can be a challenge. In this post, we cover what malvertising is, how the IAB’s Buyers.json and DemandChain Object contribute to greater supply chain transparency, and what that means in the fight against malvertising.
The fight against malvertising
Malvertising happens when a legitimate ad is infected with a virus or hijacked by malicious actors and displayed on a publisher’s site. According to Confiant, up to 1 in 330 ads fall victim to malvertising. These attacks not only harm the digital ad ecosystem and consumers alike but also waste ad spend and tarnish publishers’ reputations. So how has the programmatic ecosystem reduced the prevalence of malvertising?
Supply chain transparency
Increased transparency in the programmatic supply chain has made it easier to spot malicious buyers and reduce instances of malvertising. On the sell side, publishers use ads.txt to show which SSPs and resellers can auction off their inventory. SSPs host sellers.json files that provide transparency into which sellers are direct sellers or intermediaries.
But what about the buy side? Unfortunately, transparency initiatives like ads.txt have been lacking on the buy-side until the IAB’s introduction of buyers.json and DemandChain object.
Support for IAB’s buyers.json and DemandChain Object
Buyers.json and DemandChain Object aim to enable DSPs to become more transparent and help supply partners reduce malvertising by identifying the potential buyers behind these attacks. However, these standards require buy-in from all sides of the ad tech supply chain to succeed.
By implementing buyers.json, any organization between the DSP and publisher can transparently show who the buyers are that they represent. This allows SSPs and publishers to identify any problematic buyers or malvertising attacks across their demand chain and take appropriate action. With DemandChain Object, sellers can see any party involved in buying an embedded creative for any bid.
The fight against malvertising necessitates a multi-faceted approach that combines supply chain transparency and industry-wide adoption of standards like buyers.json. As the programmatic ecosystem continues to evolve, a collective commitment to transparency, accountability, and the integration of tools such as buyers.json and DemandChain Object emerges as the linchpin in safeguarding the digital advertising space from the insidious threats posed by malvertising.
By fortifying the defenses on both the sell and buy sides, the industry can foster a more resilient and trustworthy environment, ultimately preserving the integrity of digital advertising for publishers and consumers alike. The inclusion of buyers.json, with its structured framework for revealing the intricacies of programmatic buying, plays a pivotal role in enhancing visibility and facilitating proactive identification and isolation of potential sources of malvertising.
As stakeholders collaborate to embrace and implement these standards, a united front against malvertising becomes more achievable, paving the way for a more secure and trustworthy digital advertising landscape.
Contact us to learn more about protecting your ad spend from malvertising with Sharethrough.
Founded in 2015, Calibrate is a yearly conference for new engineering managers hosted by seasoned engineering managers. The experience level of the speakers ranges from newcomers all the way through senior engineering leaders with over twenty years of experience in the field. Each speaker is greatly concerned about the craft of engineering management. Organized and hosted by Sharethrough, it was conducted yearly in September, from 2015-2019 in San Francisco, California.
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