Tim Cranton, Microsoft’s Associate General Counsel, writing on Microsoft On The Issues explains the company’s latest moves against cyber-criminals.
Today, Microsoft filed five civil lawsuits, the first of their kind against a nasty phenomenon known as malvertising. That’s the industry term for malicious online advertising. Microsoft works with the other leading providers of online ad platforms to mitigate the threat posed by malvertising, but we’re now taking that effort a step further.
The lawsuits allege that individuals using the business names “Soft Solutions,” “Direct Ad,” “qiweroqw.com,” “ITmeter INC.” and “ote2008.info” used malvertisements to distribute malicious software or present deceptive websites that peddled scareware to unsuspecting Internet users. Although we don’t yet know the names of the specific individuals behind these acts, we are filing these cases to help uncover the people responsible and prevent them from continuing their exploits.
This is good news. It’s already plenty difficult to make money with online advertising. Any and all impediments to the growth of this fledgling industry need to be addressed.
