Google clamps down on malware advertising

Google has made several enhancements to its anti-malvertising site to help its ad network customers prevent attempts to distribute malware through advertising.

The web giant launched an initial custom search engine at the beginning of the year, designed to allow ad networks to perform quick background checks on prospective advertisers to minimise the risk of malware.

"It checks a variety of independent third-party sites that track possible attempts to distribute malware through advertising," said a statement on the site.

"Its search results should not be considered the last word on a prospective customer, but one potential source of helpful information. If a party you're researching comes up in a search result here, we recommend you take a closer look at the party in question before rendering judgement."

The Anti-Malvertising.com site has been enhanced with additional educational materials relevant to "all web publishers, ad operations teams and internet users", according to Google.

Among the recommendations for publishers is that they always perform comprehensive quality assurance on creatives and that they avoid ad networks without strong anti-malware measures in place.

Also on the site are incident response tactics for small to medium sized publishers, including sample scripts for customer service and notifying ad networks and other third parties in the event of malware being discovered.

There are also links to free online security scanning services, recommended further reading and forums.

"The world of online advertising, like the offline world, is a dynamic environment that contains a diverse mix of people with different goals, both good and bad," the site reads. "This web site focuses on 'malvertising' (the threat of malware being distributed through advertising) and how you can help prevent it."

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