Resolution of Malware Issue
Hi,
In light of the unfortunate mishap of the recent malware attack, we would like to address all affected and provide you with information on what exactly happened.
The issue
A few days ago, we received a report indicating that the Google safe browsing team had blacklisted our advertising network. The affected domain was innity.net. This domain operates as a content delivery network to transmit static banner files to our end users. Websites that were embedded with the Innity tag were affected with this problem and this caused a warning message to be displayed when users visited the websites using Google Chrome or Firefox.
The action taken by Innity
We excluded the affected sub domain of innity.net from our advertising network. We also initiated the Google review process and requested Google to recheck the site and to declassify it as malware.
The outcome as a result of intervention
Google completed a review of our domain and certified that innity.net had been re-activated and had passed all the necessary verifications. However, the release of our domain does not help to release our publisher’s websites from the list. A team is helping the publishers to submit their re-review request to speed up the process.
The reason for the existence of this malware on the server
We have confirmed with software engineers at the Google anti-malware team that a particular publisher had hosted an OpenX ad tag in our ad server to facilitate their in house ad serving, but it appeared that the publisher’s OpenX installation was compromised. As innity.net was used to serve the publisher’s OpenX tag, innity.net was added to the malware list. It is important to note that no malware was residing or is residing currently on the Innity server. Additionally, Innity’s Ad Serving Ecosystem is not using an Open Source Ad Server. We have also received verification directly from Google on the same as indicated below:
What are we doing to prevent this
- As a security measure, we have disabled all OpenX tags uploaded by publishers. We require publishers that are using an OpenX ad server to patch their OpenX installation and to send requests to Innity for any manual review that may be required.
- Aside from an internal audit, we have also appointed a certified third-party security house to monitor our ad network and ad serving.
- We have enforced stricter policies for using the in-house ad serving platform to better secure our network and other publishers.
Why Innity remains the leader of choice
Innity’s solutions remain amongst the best in the market and our combination of online media proficiency, industry clout, cutting-edge technology as well as sophisticated modeling and analytical tools will continue to help us expand our customer base as we have done successfully in the past.
Additionally, Innity’s ad serving and ad tracking system have gone through BPA certification according to IAB guidelines, which allows us to guarantee accuracy and transparency of our digital campaigns. Third-party verification proves our commitment to our clients.
Throughout the years, Innity has successfully executed numerous cutting-edge, innovative campaigns for leading local, regional and international clients across various sectors, including telecommunications, automobile, food and beverage, consumer electronics, and health care.
We at Innity look forward to your continued support. Your business is important to us.
If you have any further questions, please do email us at marketing@innity.com
Thank you.
Best regards,
Olesya
