SmokeScreen Scam Malware Hijacks Mobile Devices in the U.S

A prolific CTV ad fraud program called “Smoke Screen” has been suppressed by a software company in New York. The SmokeScreen scam allowed screen savers to hijack CTV devices and generate impressions even when the screen was off.

The malware was delivered through a malicious screensaver application and used forged data to generate impressions. The end user does not know that SmokeScreen is running on the device, even if a regular hijacked device produces three times as many impression volumes as a legitimate device.

This scheme was identified by the software platform DoubleVerify (DV) and SmokeScreen was disabled.

DV said efforts to neutralize SmokeScreen would help clients and partners avoid wasting investments, but the scheme, which generates over 300 million ad requests over US $ 6 million per month, Warned that it remains active on approximately 10,000 unprotected devices.

Mark Zagorski, CEO of Double Verify, said:…