These are dark days for the digital media ecosystem.

Ad tags with malware have quadrupled over the last 12 months while unique attacks have stayed pretty static.

That means malware distributors and malvertisers are having a lot of success delivering their malicious goods and attacking consumers. 

They’ve found consistent vulnerabilities, particularly in the programmatic display and video spaces. Even worse, they’ve developed increasingly sophisticated attacks that evade detection and mitigation at all levels of the programmatic demand chain — publisher, SSP, DSP and all the other intermediaries that try and squeeze out a buck in between.

Phishing is up 4X YOY, backdoors 2X.

Combined with continued uncertainty in digital and publisher revenue struggles, this paints a dark picture for the second half of the year. Read CYA 2025 for insight and action steps for keeping consumers — and your business — safe.