Tips to Grow Your Hospitality Business with LED Displays
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

My TechDecisions

  • Best of Tech Decisions
  • Topics
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Mobility
    • Unified Communications
    • IT Infrastructure
    • Network Security
    • Physical Security
    • Facility
    • Compliance
  • RFP Resources
  • Downloads
  • Podcasts
  • Subscribe
  • Project of the Week
  • About Us
    SEARCH
Network Security

Is it Time to Get Rid of Ad Blocking Software?

An identified flaw in popular ad blocking software may put your network at risk.

May 1, 2019 Lisa Montgomery Leave a Comment

ad blocking

Ad blockers have become a necessity to most businesses for many obvious reasons. Pop-up ads, which the blockers mitigate, are not only annoying, they can eat into your bottom line by squelching productivity. According to a recent survey from Visual Objects, one of the reasons to adopt and use ad blockers is to limit interruptions in workflow. It’s a popular preventative measure, with 40 percent of people reporting that they have used an ad blocker in the past month, mostly on desktop, according to PageFair, and three-fourths of people engage in at least one form of regular ad blocking, according to Deloitte.

Related: Is Your Email Safe From Cyberattacks?

Unfortunately, the same ad blocker your company uses to minimize workplace interruptions could be putting your network at risk. As reported in a recent article by Forbes, security researcher Armin Sebastian discovered serious flaw in several popular ad blockers. He estimates that more than 100 million users are at risk, including those who use Adblock Plus, Adblock and uBlock—all have begun working to fix the vulnerability.

The article published in Forbes goes on to say that Most popular ad blockers utilize a blacklist when determining whether or not to display advertisements. When a browser lands on a page that wants to load ads, they’re checked against the list. If there’s a match, they won’t be displayed.

What Sebastian discovered was that someone who’s in control of the list could tweak it to trip up ad blockers. A feature that ad blockers utilize to ‘rewrite’ the code on a web page could be tricked into injecting malicious code instead of simply blanking out an ad element.

So what can you do to protect your network? Sebastian advises that users might want to consider switching to uBlock Origin, which doesn’t have the rewrite filter option, and so is in the clear – at least until the issue has been sorted with the affected ad blocking extensions.

Tagged With: Cyber Attacks, Cyber Security, Data Security

Related Content:

  • iOS 13.3 Why You Should Update to iOS 13.3
  • cloud computing, cloud computing risks, risks of cloud computing, cloud operations Cloud Computing and Security: The Risks You Need…
  • Windows 7 devices, updates Starting Next Month, Microsoft Will Nag You About…
  • Amazon Amazon To Open NYC Office

Free downloadable guide you may like:

  • More Common Than You Think: DDoS Attacks

    DDoS attacks are scary, but nobody would target a SMB, right? Think again. Threat actors often take advantage of SMB’s lackluster security and launch DDoS attacks that can derail your business. A DDoS attack can lead to bad press, lost assets, shrunken revenue and loss of customer trust. A large enterprise might be able to survive that, but can you?

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get the FREE Tech Decisions eNewsletter

Sign up Today!

Latest Downloads

Audio Networking in Higher Education: Transforming Facilities, Workflows and the Student Experience

Today, modern campuses contain many technical marvels, but far too often, the AV System is not one of them. Today’s students are accustomed to digi...

Building Thriving Workplace Cultures: A Manager’s Guide to Attract and Retain Millennial and Generation Z Talent

Today, managers struggle with retaining millennial and Generation Z workers, who make up the majority of the workforce. With the rise of millennial...

Digital Signage Benefits for Viewers and Network Managers

Digital signage creates a dynamic experience that captures viewers’ attention and enhances brand awareness. Functioning in segments ranging from re...

View All Downloads

Would you like your latest project featured on TechDecisions as Project of the Week?

Apply Today!

More from Our Sister Publications

Get the latest news about AV integrators and Security installers from our sister publications:

Commercial IntegratorSecurity Sales

Footer

TechDecisions

  • Home
  • Welcome to TechDecisions
  • Subscribe to the Newsletter
  • Contact Us
  • Media Solutions / Advertise
  • Comment Guidelines
  • RSS Feeds
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linkedin

Free Technology Guides

FREE Downloadable resources from TechDecisions provide timely insight into the issues that IT, A/V, and Security end-users, managers, and decision makers are facing in commercial, corporate, education, institutional, and other vertical markets

View all Guides
TD Project of the Week

Get your latest project featured on TechDecisions Project of the Week. Submit your work once and it will be eligible for all upcoming weeks.

Enter Today!

© 2019 Emerald Expositions, LLC. All rights reserved.