International malvertiser extradited from the Netherlands to face hacking charges in New Jersey

A Ukrainian national, Oleksii Ivanov, was charged with participating in a years-long, international scheme to infect computers with malware through online advertisements (i.e., malvertising) and appeared in Newark federal court after being extradited from the Netherlands. The indictment stems from a scheme operated between 2013 and 2018 and included using fake entities to purchase online ads from advertising companies and ad server platforms. Ivanov and others attempted to profit by selling access to the network of devices they had infected with malware. (US Department of Justice)

Combining faked and spoofed traffic, almost 19% of OTT ad traffic is fraudulent

Fraudlogix released a report this week that looked into OTT ad traffic, and findings show that seven percent of traffic was fake and 11.7 percent of traffic was spoofed (meaning the traffic was not actually OTT but was trying to transact as such). Combined, 18.7 percent of purported OTT ad traffic was reported as fraudulent. (Fraudlogix)

Digital advertising eclipses $100 billion for first time, per IAB Report

Digital ads in the United States accounted for more than $107 billion last year, the first year digital advertising eclipsed $100 billion after totaling $88 billion in 2017, according to the IAB’s annual Internet Advertising Revenue Report. (AdExchanger)

GoDaddy takes down 15,000 subdomains used for online scams

Web hosting provider and domain registrar GoDaddy has taken down more than 15,000 subdomains that were being used as part of a spam operation that lured users on web pages selling fake products. (ZDNet)

Google announces privacy updates as industry stuck in cookie limbo

At the Google I/O event this week in Mountain View, California, the internet giant shared plans to boost consumer privacy by limiting cookies, a move that could strengthen its dominance in the advertising market. (The Drum)

The Trade Desk’s revenue is up, and benefits from general ad tech slide

The Trade Desk captured $121 million in revenue during Q1, up 41% from $85.7 million in the same period last year, the company reported on Thursday. Its profitability in the quarter rose to $10.2 million, from $9.1 million in 2018. (AdExchanger)

Supply chain transparency should have a buy-side twin

In this opinion piece, Index Exchange's Michael McNeeley suggests that some of the same measures that the supply side has deployed to bring more transparency to that side of the market should also be practiced on the buy side to help combat malvertising campaigns and other malicious actors. (ExchangeWire)