How to get a Finnish IP address
The easiest way to improve your digital privacy is to switch your IP address using a VPN. We’ll …
The Internet is rife with fake advertisements that link to malware-infected sites, and using the best Internet security VPN is a great way to protect yourself against malvertising.
Importance of Advertising
Advertising is the primary source of revenue for most of the content found on the Internet. They can be found on websites, blogs, streaming sites, social media and emails, to name a few. Taking advantage of the ubiquity of ads, many cyber criminals today use current Internet advertising methods to advance their malicious interests.
Deploying seemingly legitimate online advertisements that are malware-infected and using the names of popular brands and the faces of popular celebrities, it’s no surprise that many of today’s Internet users are getting tricked. This is called malvertising.
What Exactly is Malvertising?
A combination of the words “malicious” and “advertising,” malvertising refers to the use of legitimate Internet advertising practices to spread malicious software. In malvertising, a cybercriminal uses social engineering to fool unwitting users into clicking on their infected ads. Once clicked on, users are immediately linked to infected sites.
A device infected by malware as a result of its user clicking a malvertisement is then breached, allowing cybercriminals to recruit that device into a botnet and remotely install viruses and malicious software on the device such as adware, ransomware and spyware, without the knowledge of the user.
According to a report published in August last year by threat protection platform developer Cyphort, the number of sites that carry malicious ads rose from 125 in June 2014 to 400 in February 2015. These sites now include legitimate, heavy-traffic websites such as The New York Times, Youtube, Newsweek, MSN, and BBC, to name a few. This makes malvertising a serious Internet threat.
Protect Yourself using the best Internet Security VPN
The first thing that comes to mind when people think about protection against malvertising is ad blocking software. By using ad blockers however, you are contributing to the problem of websites losing legitimate advertising, which in turn makes it harder for them to produce content.
A much better solution is installing a Hotspot Shield on your device. This free VPN, compatible with Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices, provides added protection against malvertising and other malware attacks by blocking sites that are known to be infected. Hotspot Shield does this using a database of more than 3.5 million known malware-infected websites, which is updated every day.
Hotspot Shield also offers a lot of other benefits, including:
- Website unblock – Hotspot Shield lets you bypass filters and firewalls set by your network administrator, allowing you to gain access to your favorite content.
- IP address masking – Connecting to the Internet through Hotspot Shield temporarily replaces your actual IP address with a US IP address, allowing you to surf the web anonymously.
- Private & secure browsing – Using advanced encryption, Hotspot Shield VPN secures your data, including passwords, financial transactions and instant messages, hiding your sensitive information from snoopers and hackers.
- Wi-Fi security – Hotspot Shield keeps your private data considerably more private while using a public hotspot, which improves your browsing sessions.
Install Hotspot Shield VPN on your device now so you won’t have to worry about malicious ads infecting your device. Visit the website to know more about the benefits of Hotspot Shield VPN or download it here.
