The Media Trust

We're celebrating 20 years of protecting consumers—and helping businesses thrive online—with the 2025 Digital Trust & Safety Summit in NYC on January 15. This is where experience meets innovation—join adtech marketplace quality specialists, publisher ad ops, digital security professionals, and more in discussing the strategies for preserving consumer well-being, and driving more revenue. PLUS: A keynote from digital media legend Dennis Colón of JIFFY.ai on re-building trust throughout the industry and practical AI applications! Looking for an invitation? Hit up Gavin at [email protected]

It was 20 years ago today Sgt. Olson grabbed the band to say “These threats are wicked and wild Gonna combat them quite a while!” No we never gave up the fight We’re still battlin’ with all our might— Sgt. Olson’s Malware Busting Band Celebrate 20 years of protecting digital consumers with us—the fight has only just begun. Chris Olson

US publishers were prepared for traffic spikes on the night of the presidential election—and The Media Trust was prepared for a malvertising outbreak. Starting at midnight on Nov. 6, ad-blocking script Media Filter stopped a 6X rise in phishing and backdoor malvertising attacks versus the daily average. However, the assault kept going—the next week US news and political sites were hit with a fresh wave of tech support scams. Read all about it here: https://lnkd.in/eDTDFwRU

Thrilled to have Dennis Colón on board for this—talking with him really cemented the theme in my mind: Where Experience Meets Innovation. The Media Trust HAS to be on the cutting edge because—to abuse the cliche—we are in a cat and mouse game with bad actors. We don't just react to their latest shenanigans—we try to predict what vulnerabilities they will attack next. Video ad units, compromising identity resolution URLs, etc. And they're quite clever when it comes to evading detection, which means we're also innovating behind the scenes to pull the bad guys out of the shadows. But on top of that, our mandate has expanded over the years. We're not just about protecting digital consumers—we're about helping companies ensure consumer well-being, which happens to be key for driving sales, ad revenue, and business in general. So that gives you an idea of the topics of conversation awaiting you at the DTS Summit on January 15—we'll have digital first responders discussing day to day challenges and successes, the legendary Patrick Ciavolella diving into threats to be on the lookout for, and TMT's product team unveiling our latest breakthroughs in ad and content categorization (I'm really excited about that stuff!). The event is invite-only, but feel free to ask me for an invite! I'm trying not to let the power go to my head...

💡 Mobile Auto-Redirects: Annoying, Disruptive, and Fixable 💡 Auto-redirects are frustrating, trust-killing, and surprisingly common. Here’s the reality: 👉 10% of mobile ads are capable of triggering redirects. 👉 Redirects = frustrated users, wasted ad budgets, and app store penalties. The culprits? 🔻 Malicious ads sneaking into programmatic campaigns. 🔻 Deep link misconfigurations cause unintended behaviour. 🔻 SDK gaps that let redirects slip through. It doesn’t have to be this way! 3 Steps to Fight Back ✅ Stop redirects at the source: Use an Ad Quality SDK (I know a great one). ✅ Work with trusted ad networks: Quality control is everything. ✅ Test and monitor: Catch bad actors before they hurt your bottom line. Redirects are annoying - and they’re fixable. Seen this issue before? Let’s trade ideas - I’d love to hear what’s working for you. 📖 More insights: Mediatrust.com, AdExchanger.com #AdTech #MobileSecurity #UserExperience #ProgrammaticSuccess

#Polyfill? That's so June 2024. Nuh-uh, says VP of Product R&D Jason Bickham—the JavaScript library remains on countless sites despite the FACT it could reignite at any second and turn major brands into malware distributers.

October was a frightful month, but not in the fun Halloween-sense—threat actors barraged the digital advertising ecosystem with scareware, fake tech support scams, and bogus software update malvertising. It's clear bad guys think they can target vulnerable internet users like senior citizens with impunity—so what are you doing to stop them? (Especially when it hurts your bottom line!) https://hubs.li/Q02YCFZC0

I couldn't be more excited to have y'all meet the upcoming guests on #ThePubWay podcast! TIna and I are back like we never left, with more exclusive conversations with leaders from the publishing and media space, tackling practical strategies and the latest insights to overcome industry challenges. Coming up: Dan Benyamin (Founder and CEO at Aeon), Jessica Breslav (Chief Customer Officer at Index Exchange), Franklin Horn (Senior Product Manager at Los Angeles Times), and Don Valdez (Head of Ad Tech and Publisher Partnerships at The Media Trust). Stay tuned for new episodes: https://lnkd.in/ePEEuH55 #Publishers #ContextualAdvertising #AdTech Seedtag

The rumors are true: Fake celebrity bitcoin attacks skyrocketed in October, with noteworthy assaults on UK publishers and consumers. Known as FizzCore, these phishing campaigns bypass ad platforms by using cloaking technology to hide their malicious intent—from everyone except their carefully picked. If any of these creatives look familiar to you and you want the misery to stop, reach out to The Media Trust right away: [email protected]. https://lnkd.in/eyNSkmeR

Thanks to a low barrier for entry and a wealth of vulnerabilities, malvertising attacks are increasing every year. You need a security partner who has specialized in shutting down threats... Not one who has specialized in aiding advertisers and only entered the ad security world via acquisition. If malware prevention and ad security isn't really your partner's core function... You should ask—who are they actually fighting for? With the largest and most experienced digital security squad in the industry, The Media Trust is fighting to keep consumers safe—as well as your business.