Forced redirect Scareware by DCCBoost

Confiant sends a red button alert to our customers whenever significant, widespread malvertising attacks occur in the digital advertising ecosystem. In this case, on July 5, 2023 the Confiant threat intelligence team notified clients of an attack by the threat actor we call DCCBoost.

Confiant has been tracking a surge in forced redirect ads from threat actor DCCBoost.

Attack Information 

DCCBoost is currently running a forced redirect scareware campaign, exclusively targeting the United States on desktop environments. DCCBoost has been using fake McAfee scareware attacks since late 2021, after a long time spent targeting mobile devices. The current campaign is mostly active on BuckSense via many DSPs.

DCCBoost runs large campaigns every 6 weeks to 2 months. The on-going campaign has been ramping up for the last 2 weeks and is still in the staging phase. We are proactively reaching out to the impacted platforms so that they can take the malicious accounts down. The list of impacted platforms is mostly consistent with our previous alert (May 9th), suggesting that DCCBoost is firmly established on many of them.

When:

Since June 26.

How:

SSPs Impacted:

• Commerce Grid
• AdYouLike
• Minute Media
• Media.net
• Smaato
• Smile Wanted
• YieldMo
• NoBid

DSPs impacted:

• StackAdapt
• Eskimi
• LoopMe
• SmartyAds
• BuckSense

Where:

• Geographies: United States 
• Targeting: Desktop - Windows 
• Reach: Less than 0.5% of impressions in targeted geographies 

Confiant also includes simple step-by-step instructions for our customers on how to protect their sites from this and other similar attacks in every alert, as well as screenshots where available.

Confiant's ad verification solutions and threat intelligence security attack alerts help defend the digital ad industry by enabling publishers and ad platforms to take back control of the ad experience from threat actors to protect their users. Our solutions protect reputation, revenue, and resources through real-time verification of digital advertisements.

Confiant's technology actively blocks and detects malicious activity, privacy infringements, and low-quality ads. By providing industry-leading protection against malvertising, disruptive ads, and privacy risks Confiant empowers premium ad platforms and publishers with actionable data to ensure the digital ad ecosystem is safe and secure for everyone.

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