Many people use ad-blocking apps. Aside from the irritating nature of advertisements in general, many people actually use these apps for cybersecurity. Because some advertisements that can be used with malicious intent can cause computers to be infiltrated or sensitive information to be leaked.
It has been revealed that institutions and organizations affiliated with the Intelligence Community (IC), which includes organizations such as the CIA and NSA in the USA, also use ad blockers to protect them from malicious software on the Internet.
Ad blockers are everywhere
First of all, let’s take a look at the intelligence and security organizations under the umbrella of the IC organization: FBI, DEA, DHS, CIA, NSA and some US Department of Defense departments are under this organization. When we think of the charismatic brothers and sisters in suits in the movies, it seems like special, extremely hard-to-break software is used within this organization, but the ad-blocker is the solution they found. On the other hand, if we think about it in the real world, this is quite logical.
Malicious people who find some vulnerabilities in the way advertisements are delivered are using these vulnerabilities to send malware or extract sensitive data. IC officials, who prepared a report on how they combat harmful ads, state that they use a multi-layered ad blocking system on their network.
Ads were discussed.
Previously, the US Senate conducted a study on the data collected from advertisements in the virtual environment and requested a report from the IC. The focus of these discussions was the point that foreign intelligence organizations could use this data and process this data for purposes such as attack and manipulation.
Although the report did not provide details on what kind of security system intelligence agencies use, it was stated that some ad networks were blocked directly from IP addresses. It was also mentioned that the system used is constantly and instantly updated.