Threat Intelligence Alert: Merry-Go-Round Conceals Ads from Users and Brands

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External References

• https://www.humansecurity.com/
• https://otx.alienvault.com/

Description

HUMAN's Satori Threat Intelligence and Research Team uncovered an ad cloaking operation, dubbed 'Merry-Go-Round', which involves two independent rings of websites that redirect traffic among each other in pop-under tabs, racking up digital ad impressions concealed from users. This sophisticated operation uses overlays to hijack mouse clicks, launch pop-unders, and cycle through domains, requesting numerous ads while hiding the fraudulent activity from brands and advertising partners through domain cloaking techniques.

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