Cable Forum - View Single Post - Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]

madslug · 31-07-2008, 14:20

Hi Dean - a few weeks back I made a post which related to the history of one of the tracking scripts. Even though I linked to a google cache, when people visited the page they had malware download warnings.

The big problem is that for the last 4/5 years, adverts relying on javascripts, etc have been associated with the downloading of malware and rootkits. DPI is seen in the same light as that malware and rootkits.

The risks are the origins of the adblockers, cookie removal/blocking and hosts file restrictions far more than the adverts themselves.

My personal view is that the advertising industry needs to clean up its act and start to use methods which do not expose anyone viewing ads to such risks, not look for methods to increase those risks. And DPI is a method too far. Ad delivery needs to go back to what it was doing before the malware and rootkits got added by the hackers.

Give us adverts backed by a secure system. For current technology that means that a lot of the current ads are not acceptable: no gifs, no flash, no javascript. Spend the development money on a secure delivery system, needs to be developed from scratch.

31-07-2008, 14:20	#13000
madslug Inactive Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 161	Re: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797] Hi Dean - a few weeks back I made a post which related to the history of one of the tracking scripts. Even though I linked to a google cache, when people visited the page they had malware download warnings. The big problem is that for the last 4/5 years, adverts relying on javascripts, etc have been associated with the downloading of malware and rootkits. DPI is seen in the same light as that malware and rootkits. The risks are the origins of the adblockers, cookie removal/blocking and hosts file restrictions far more than the adverts themselves. My personal view is that the advertising industry needs to clean up its act and start to use methods which do not expose anyone viewing ads to such risks, not look for methods to increase those risks. And DPI is a method too far. Ad delivery needs to go back to what it was doing before the malware and rootkits got added by the hackers. Give us adverts backed by a secure system. For current technology that means that a lot of the current ads are not acceptable: no gifs, no flash, no javascript. Spend the development money on a secure delivery system, needs to be developed from scratch.