Hackers used malware to hack Android devices to create an Android ad fraud botnet called ‘Pareto’ that mimicked millions of connected TV products to generate fake ad views.
Cybersecurity firm Human Security, previously White Ops, has uncovered and disrupted a highly sophisticated botnet-based fraud operation in which hackers managed to infect over one million Android mobile devices to steal revenues from advertisers.
Dubbed Pareto CTV botnet, the compromised devices were used to conduct fraud via the TV advertising ecosystem. Malware mimicking millions of TV products was inserted in android devices to generate fake ad views.
According to researchers, the botnet utilized dozens of mobile applications to spoof/impersonate over 6,000 CTV apps, which provided at least 650 million ad requests daily.
Mobile Botnet First Discovered in 2020
Human Security’s Satori Threat Intelligence and Research Team first uncovered the mobile botnet in 2020 and partnered with Google, Roku, and others to disrupt the ad-fraud operation.
The botnet spoofed signals in malicious Android mobile apps to target consumer TV streaming products that run on Roku OS, Fire OS, tvOS, and other popular CTV platforms. It benefitted from the digital shifts that the coronavirus pandemic accelerated to trick advertisers and tech startups into believing that ads were being aired on TV.
According to Human Security, Pareto operators have employed sophisticated evasion techniques as they have continually changed their spoofing styles to create new disguises for fake traffic.
36 Roku Apps Connected to Botnet Operators’ Server
Researchers explained that they have identified a distinct but connected operation on the Roku platform as around 36 apps on ..
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