A group based in Hong Kong has been identified behind the recent outbreaks of malicious ads via Windows 10 apps and Microsoft games. This group is behind millions of ads that forward users to bundles of scams, malware and adware.

BleepingComputer reported in April and June of this year that malvertising was targeting German and French users with technological support, phishing pages and counterfeit sweepstakes. The striking fact is that ads appear in Microsoft free games and Windows 10 apps to get the app out of hand and run unwanted sites on a default user’s browser. This attack was unusual.

The advertising security company Confiant has found an advertiser based in Hong Kong who created corporate identities for partnerships using DSPs (demand side platforms), a report shared with BleepingComputer. Then its low quality and often malicious ads would be distributed to other ad networks and publishers by way of DSPs.

“We were fortunate enough in March 2019 to receive comments on a campaign that fit in the assignment model for this assailant from one of our customers in the platform,” confident security engineer and investigator Eliya Stein said. “It was reported the buyer,” fiber-ads. “It was also told that they have recently pivoted on a new corporate identity,’ clickfollow.” “Fibreads” were also involved in advertising marketplace MyMediAds as well as partnering directly with DSPs. “It was also reported to us that this was an exact buyer."

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