It's always a risk when it comes to ads because you never know which ones are malicious, especially on shady websites. There are different types that can infect your device such as malware that can corrupt your data, or in this topic's case, spyware that can monitor your activities.
Spyware Through Ads
Spyware, also known as adware, is created to collect private and sensitive data from your computer or phone such as passwords, emails, financial information, and even personal information that can be used for fraudulent activities.
In most cases, users are not even aware that their devices have been infected until it's too late. In a recent report, it's said that spyware makers are now capable of creating targeted malware for specific users using banner ads, as per Tech Crunch.
Intellexa, a European company that develops ad-based spyware created Predator, which is capable of accessing the full contents of a phone in real time. It also presented the system called Aladdin back in 2022.
The company presented a demonstration of the spyware and showed that the spyware can be acquired by targets through online ads by "seemingly targeting graphic designers and activists with job offers, through which the spyware will be introduced to their device."
Even with its capabilities revealed, it was never explicitly said whether the spyware was sold to government customers, or if it was fully developed. However, it just shows how much of a danger ads are for devices or people with sensitive jobs and roles.
One solution could be installing ad blockers to stop what is called malvertising. With the blockers active, the malware-ridden ads would not even have the chance to show up on websites, especially since they are basically unavoidable.
Almost all the websites you visit will have ads, especially the ones that don't require subscriptions since it will be the only way a site can generate revenue. When in doubt, just don't click any ads at all.
How to Detect If You Have Spyware
There are a lot of signs to look out for if you believe that you have been infected by malware. There are variations of it and can play certain roles like mobile spyware, banking trojans, password stealers, and cookie trackers.
All these have a couple of similar telltale signs. For one, you might experience increasing lag on your device and might see a slower response. Since it runs activities in the background, your laptop or smartphone's battery will also be depleted quickly, according to Kaspersky.
There will be unexpected advertising messages or pop-ups if the spyware comes with adware, which it usually is, and new toolbars like search engines and internet home pages will be installed, even if you didn't do so yourself.
What's more concerning is that it can cause your antivirus software and other safety measures to stop working. You will also notice an increase in data usage and bandwidth use, which happens when the spyware is searching your information and uploading the data to the bad actor.
