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Sounds a bit like good 'ol protection money, though ("You don't want some malware on your pc, do you?"[0]). A business classic but not exactly what you'd want f

by cJ0th 9y ago

Sounds a bit like good 'ol protection money, though ("You don't want some malware on your pc, do you?"[0]). A business classic but not exactly what you'd want from a tech company. [0] http://www.businessinsider.de/android-malware-spreads-using-google-adsense-advertising-network-kaspersky-researchers-2016-8?r=US&IR=T http://www.businessinsider.de/android-malware-spreads-using-...

underyx 9y ago
Huh? Do participating sites need to pay to be included? How is this protection money?
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  This is protection money from the user's POV. Protection against malware delivered to user through ads. Particular site that displays the ads is utterly irrelevant here.
- cJ0th 9y ago
  My comment, as TeMPOraL points out, was looking at it from the user's perspective and it was a little tongue in cheek. However, google certainly is aware that its AdSense service has been used to spread malware (see my link above)
majewsky 9y ago
Google is the one ad network I'd expect to at least make an effort to scan for and filter malware-infested ads, for one reason: They're a household name and they have other products that actual consumers use. If there were a headline tomorrow that some random ad network distributed malware onto consumer's computers, everyone would say "never heard of them before" and move on. If the headline were "Google spreads malware onto consumer's computers", it's reasonable to expect that at least a few people would get mad (such as those affected by the malware) and stop using some other Google product(s). So that's a risk that Google has to consider when asking whether malware scanning is a justified expense. Of course, this doesn't take into account the follow-up question whether malware scanning at the ad-network level (or anywhere, really) offers any sort of protection. (It doesn't appear to be effective, as evidenced by your link.) I, for one, have not whitelisted Google ads (or anything else) in any of my ad/tracking/malware blockers.
- lightbyte 9y ago
  >Google is the one ad network I'd expect to at least make an effort to scan for and filter malware-infested ads, for one reason: They're a household name and they have other products that actual consumers use. They have already served up malware from ads: https://www.theverge.com/2014/9/19/6537511/google-ad-network-exposed-millions-of-computers-to-malware https://www.theverge.com/2014/9/19/6537511/google-ad-network...
  - majewsky 9y ago
    Yes, I acknowledged that further down.

by cJ0th 9y ago

underyx 9y ago

Huh? Do participating sites need to pay to be included? How is this protection money?

TeMPOraL 9y ago
This is protection money from the user's POV. Protection against malware delivered to user through ads. Particular site that displays the ads is utterly irrelevant here.
cJ0th 9y ago
My comment, as TeMPOraL points out, was looking at it from the user's perspective and it was a little tongue in cheek. However, google certainly is aware that its AdSense service has been used to spread malware (see my link above)

majewsky 9y ago

Google is the one ad network I'd expect to at least make an effort to scan for and filter malware-infested ads, for one reason: They're a household name and they have other products that actual consumers use. If there were a headline tomorrow that some random ad network distributed malware onto consumer's computers, everyone would say "never heard of them before" and move on. If the headline were "Google spreads malware onto consumer's computers", it's reasonable to expect that at least a few people would get mad (such as those affected by the malware) and stop using some other Google product(s). So that's a risk that Google has to consider when asking whether malware scanning is a justified expense. Of course, this doesn't take into account the follow-up question whether malware scanning at the ad-network level (or anywhere, really) offers any sort of protection. (It doesn't appear to be effective, as evidenced by your link.) I, for one, have not whitelisted Google ads (or anything else) in any of my ad/tracking/malware blockers.

lightbyte 9y ago
>Google is the one ad network I'd expect to at least make an effort to scan for and filter malware-infested ads, for one reason: They're a household name and they have other products that actual consumers use. They have already served up malware from ads: https://www.theverge.com/2014/9/19/6537511/google-ad-network-exposed-millions-of-computers-to-malware https://www.theverge.com/2014/9/19/6537511/google-ad-network...
- majewsky 9y ago
  Yes, I acknowledged that further down.