11.08.09
Are Online Ads Making Consumers Vulnerable to Malware?
Online ads are one of the few places where advertising spending has actually improved over the last year, but consumers may be liking them a lot less when they find out how dangerous clicking on those ads can be.
Consumers clicking on online ads in the UK and the US have been getting malware on their computers, and the pushback is not going to be pretty.
Since hackers look for places to put their malware that attract large numbers of people, internet ads are an obvious place for them to insert their viruses. Extremely popular ads, particularly ones that involve clicking on a link, are an excellent agent to distribute their malware to the general public.
Risks include consumers becoming angry at the companies who put up these ads, even if the companies themselves have nothing to do with the malware and do not have a hacker among their own employees.
This means that companies who want to spend their advertising dollars online would be well advised to invest a portion of those funds in serious security systems to protect their customers – and their own ROI.
