Click Fraud in Digital Advertising: A Comprehensive Survey

Abstract

Recent research has revealed an alarming prevalence of click fraud in online advertising systems. In this article, we present a comprehensive study on the usage and impact of bots in performing click fraud in the realm of digital advertising. Specifically, we first provide an in-depth investigation of different known categories of Web-bots along with their malicious activities and associated threats. We then ask a series of questions to distinguish between the important behavioral characteristics of bots versus humans in conducting click fraud within modern-day ad platforms. Subsequently, we provide an overview of the current detection and threat mitigation strategies pertaining to click fraud as discussed in the literature, and we categorize the surveyed techniques based on which specific actors within a digital advertising system are most likely to deploy them. We also offer insights into some of the best-known real-world click bots and their respective ad fraud campaigns observed to date. According to our knowledge, this paper is the most comprehensive research study of its kind, as it examines the problem of click fraud both from a theoretical as well as practical perspective.

Comprehensive Analysis to Detect Mobile Malware Using Multiple Techniques

“…The mobile devices carries each and every information about its user, so these devices are targeted by the cybercriminals to gain unauthorized access to the user's device. Mobile malware detection techniques are essential for many reasons such as the increase in the use of mobile devices has made these devices profitable for the cybercriminals who seek to steal the personal or sensitive information or exploit the vulnerabilities [4]. The mobile malware detection techniques are classified into two categories traditional detection techniques and advanced detection techniques.…”

“…Malware known as "Advertising Click Fraud" enables an attacker to take control of a device and use phony ad clicks to make money. Some common ways by which the attackers rely on to distribute their malicious code are Mobile phishing and spoofing, jailbreaking or rooting, drive-by downloads, trojanized apps, malvertising, infected document and many more [3].…”