Online Advertisers with Google Adwords Campaigns may be Affected by Keyword Hijacking
(PRWEB) February 3, 2005 -- Clickrisk has identified a critical flaw in Google Adwords that allows an attacker to disable campaign keywords and adopt higher ad positions at reduced costs.
Adam Sculthorpe, security specialist and CEO of Clickrisk.com, and his team of 19 researchers have discovered through extensive forensic testing and analysis of Google Adwords, a new type of click fraud—Keyword Hijacking. Keyword Hijacking is where an attacker disables campaign keywords to secure a higher ad position. Sculthorpe explains, this is achieved by disabling targeted keywords across many advertisers campaigns simultaneously by artificially inflating the number of times an ad is displayed."
Sculthorpe is concerned that the business impact of keyword hijacking can be very high—cost-per-click (CPC) advertisers may suffer disabled keywords for extended periods of time". This compromises return-on-investment (ROI) for online ad campaigns, where symptoms of an attack include a sudden drop in click-through rates and disabled keywords.
A leading security expert, Sculthorpe has more than 18 years of combined security intelligence and technology industry experience, including providing consulting services for Fortune-500 organizations. His expertise helped to protect the integrity of daily banking transactions in excess of US$350 billion for leading Swiss and U.S. investment banks.
The incidence of click fraud risk exposure is on the rise. According to Clickrisks Chief Risk Officer, Jack Bensimon, our clients have experienced substantial losses ranging from 20 – 65% of their total click costs." Bensimon believes that managing business risk is a critical component of online advertising" and further recommends that online marketers should be vigilant and regularly monitor keywords".
Clickrisk security analysts believe the keyword hijacking vulnerability may be widely exploited.
Clickrisk is the leading provider of click fraud prevention software and professional consulting services to manage integrity issues for online advertisers. For more information about keyword hijacking and other types of click fraud, please visit http://www.clickrisk.com/ or call 416-850-2091 for additional information.
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