Over the past couple of weeks, a few YieldBuild pubs alerted us about intrusive anti-virus ads loading on their sites. The ads would prompt users to click on “anti-virus” software and subsequently load malware onto victims’ machines. Because there wasn’t a massive outbreak of these ads across the YieldBuild publisher network, it was very difficult to track down the cause of the particular instances. When something like this occurs, it goes against the wishes of both advertisers and publishers, website developers, programers, and of course, users.  And what is most difficult: detecting the culprit.

It has now been confirmed that over the past two weeks, both DoubleClick and MSN were victims of what is known as a “drive by download,” an attack engineered by hackers resulting in the unintended download of computer software.

The preferred vehicles for these annoyances are actually banner ads (though they can also load via e-mail or pop-ups) that do not require a click to initiate downloads. Instead,  the user’s browser tries to (and thinks it is!) load an advertisement but is in fact already downloading malware onto the computer.

What can we do to arm ourselves against these villainous creatures? Unfortunately, very little. Most of these viruses are deposited in the form of JavaScript, which many legitimate websites also use. But, all hope is not lost! Here are some tips for how to quickly detect malware and rid your computer of “malvertising”:

*Triple check domain names: According to Wayne Huang, chief technology officer at Armorize Technologies (a web security firm): “A domain name that is registered too recently – which also bears a suspicious resemblance to one that an ad network already uses – is a red flag,”

*Try and equip your machine with a Malware detection program and anti-virus protection software

*Report suspicious ads to YieldBuild support! The more detail you have about the advertisement (including a firebug shot of the corresponding code), the faster we can work with our ad partners to figure out both (a) which network has been impersonated and (b) blacklist the faulty domains from serving again.

For more information regarding the technical details of the DoubleClick/MSN attack and the threats that it posed, check out Huang’s blog post.

Despite widespread anxieties over economic uncertainty,  a report released by eMarketer this week highlights online advertising as one of the faster-growing markets out there.

Spending by large brand marketers and SMBs will be a key factor in future growth. Not only does the report forecast a 10.5% increase in US online ad spending next year, but in its accompaniment will be yearly double-digit growth through 2014 where spending will hit $40.5 billion! That is more than a ten fold increase of the rate of total media ad spending growth, projected to rise a mere 1.2% in 2011.

What are the proximate “causes” of this growth, so to speak?

Marketing Focus: Marketers of all shapes and sizes recognize the internet’s centrality in our lives and are allocating more and more of their ad budgets towards digital media.

Sense of Stability: While seemingly ironic, the reaction of many marketers’ to the recession is to spend more and more for online advertising. According to the report, this is evidence of a growing trend that sees internet advertising as “a ’sure thing’ compared to most traditional media.”

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): A recent report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau finds that more than $5 billion was spent on SEO in the first half of 2010 alone. Search is projected to maintain its status as the largest recipient of ad spending through 2014.

Video Advertising is growing: In particular, video ad formats are growing at an explosive rate  (especially popular amongst big brand marketers) and this is expected to pick up substantially in 2011.

What does this mean for political ads? David Hallerman, principal analyst at eMarketer, claims that they’ll [thankfully] continue to permeate our cable boxes (where I can continue to fast-forward through them).