The advertising infrastructure designed to connect businesses with customers has become one of the most effective vectors for distributing malware and stealing credentials.
For two decades, security awareness training taught users to be suspicious of emails from unknown senders and links in unsolicited messages. What that training rarely addressed was the possibility that the very first result on a Google search—the one that appears above the organic listings, bearing the familiar “Ad” label—might be a carefully constructed trap designed to steal their credentials or compromise their devices.
Malvertising has surged 10% year-over-year, with forced redirects dominating attack patterns. In October 2024, these automatic redirects accounted for 81% of all malicious ads detected. Unlike traditional phishing that requires users to click suspicious links in emails, forced redirects send victims to malicious destinations the moment they click a search ad, requiring no additional interaction.
The result is a threat that operates in plain sight. Over 70% of users now view online advertisements as untrustworthy, yet the position of paid ads above organic search results means they continue to attract clicks. For organizations whose brands are being impersonated through search advertising, the challenge is detecting and removing these ads before customers become victims.
The evolution of search engine phishing
Malvertising isn’t new, but its sophistication and scale have transformed in recent years. The attacks now observed bear little resemblance to the obvious scams of earlier eras.
Traditional malvertising relied on banner ads placed through ad networks, often on lower-quality websites where oversight was minimal. Modern search engine malvertising operates at the top of the visibility hierarchy, appearing in response to explicit user searches for specific products, services, or brands. The positioning implies legitimacy since users have been conditioned to trust that platforms vet their advertisers.
The technical infrastructure has become equally sophisticated. Attackers register lookalike domains that closely mimic legitimate brand URLs, employ cloaking to show different content to security scanners than to real users, and use residential proxies to appear as if they’re operating from legitimate business locations. Some campaigns have persisted for weeks through continuous infrastructure rotation, with new domains activated as others are detected and blocked.
Security researchers at Spamhaus documented campaigns impersonating Mozilla Thunderbird, Microsoft Teams, and Nvidia, delivering multiple malware families including IcedID, Aurora Stealer, and Vidar. The diversity of brands targeted and malware deployed suggests the evolution of what one researcher described as “malvertising as a service”—threat actors purchasing ad placement capabilities from criminal operators who specialize in evading platform detection.
How malvertising attacks work
Understanding the mechanics of search engine malvertising reveals why these attacks are so effective.
The attack begins with keyword bidding. Attackers identify valuable search terms, often brand names, software products, or financial services, and bid to display ads when users search for those terms. The ad copy and display URL are crafted to appear legitimate, often using the actual brand name and a convincing domain variant.
When users click, the attack chain activates. Forced redirect attacks immediately bounce the user through a series of intermediate pages before landing on a final destination designed for credential theft or malware delivery. The redirects happen fast enough that users may not register the changing URLs, and browser security features often can’t intervene quickly enough to warn them.
Credential harvesting pages mimic login interfaces for targeted services. The pages use stolen branding, SSL certificates that display the padlock icon, and URLs that pass casual inspection. Users entering credentials believe they’re logging into legitimate services while actually sending their usernames and passwords directly to attackers.
Malware delivery exploits the trust users place in software download pages. Campaigns documented by Silent Push targeted users searching for graphic design and CAD software, directing them to professional-looking download pages that delivered malicious executables instead of legitimate applications. The malware might include keyloggers, banking trojans, or remote access tools enabling long-term system compromise.
Mobile targeting presents particular challenges since smaller screens make URL inspection difficult, security tools are often less robust than desktop equivalents, and users clicking from mobile search may be distracted or in motion. Research indicates that mobile devices account for 56% of malicious ad traffic, with forced redirects succeeding more often on mobile because users are less likely to recognize them as attacks.
For more on how attackers use legitimate infrastructure to disguise malicious activity, see our analysis of Google Ads as phishing vectors and URL shortener exploitation.
Platform enforcement and its limits
The advertising platforms are not passive observers. Google blocked 5.1 billion harmful ads in 2024 and suspended over 39.2 million advertiser accounts. The company permanently banned 700,000 accounts specifically for AI-driven impersonation scams and deployed over 100 experts to develop countermeasures against deepfake-based advertising fraud.
Yet the enforcement figures illustrate the challenge: the sheer volume of blocked ads demonstrates that malicious advertisers continuously test the system, finding gaps and exploiting them until detection catches up. The suspension of millions of accounts indicates a constant supply of new identities, some fraudulently created, others hijacked from legitimate advertisers.
The economic incentives favor attackers. Creating a new advertiser account costs essentially nothing. Running a campaign for even a few hours before detection can yield significant credential harvests or malware installations. The asymmetry between attack cost and enforcement cost favors those willing to operate at scale, treating account suspensions as a cost of doing business rather than a deterrent.
Platform improvements also create new exploitation opportunities. As one GeoEdge analysis noted, Google’s infection rates actually improved marginally (from 1.25% to 0.98%) while other platforms showed significant deterioration. The third-largest supply-side platform experienced malvertising rates exceeding 10%. Attackers follow the path of least resistance, shifting targeting to platforms with weaker enforcement.
Brand protection in the malvertising era
For organizations whose brands are being weaponized through malicious advertising, traditional protection approaches require extension.
Ad-specific monitoring must operate separately from general brand monitoring. Malicious ads exist in advertising ecosystems that differ from indexed web content. Detection requires systematic querying of ad platforms for brand-related terms, analysis of displayed ads and their destinations, and tracking of which domains are appearing in paid positions for your keywords.
Trademark enrollment with advertising platforms provides expedited enforcement paths. Google’s Ads Safety Report notes that trademark misuse represented 503.1 million of the violations addressed in 2024—the second highest category. Organizations that have registered their trademarks with ad platforms can often achieve faster takedowns than those reporting generically.
Customer education helps users recognize that ad positioning doesn’t guarantee legitimacy. This is a difficult message given decades of conditioning, but organizations can establish clear guidance about how they advertise, which URLs are legitimate, and how to verify before clicking or downloading.
Monitoring downstream indicators can reveal active campaigns even when the ads themselves haven’t been detected. Increases in customer reports of suspicious interactions, credentials appearing in dark web markets, or account takeover attempts against your users may indicate malvertising campaigns targeting your brand.
The Bottom Line
Malvertising has transformed search advertising from a customer acquisition channel into an attack surface. The platforms’ enforcement efforts—billions of blocked ads, millions of suspended accounts—demonstrate that the problem is recognized but not solved.
For security leaders, the implication is clear: brand protection must extend to paid advertising channels. The same vigilance applied to phishing emails and fraudulent websites must now encompass the sponsored results that appear above organic search listings. The trust users place in those top positions is exactly what makes them valuable, both to legitimate advertisers and to the attackers wearing their brands.
Key Takeaways
Malvertising surged 10% year-over-year. Forced redirects, which automatically send users to malicious sites without additional interaction, accounted for 81% of all malicious ads in October 2024.
Over 70% of users now perceive at least half of online ads as untrustworthy. Despite this distrust, the positioning of paid ads above organic search results means they continue to receive clicks.
Google blocked 5.1 billion harmful ads and suspended 39.2 million advertiser accounts in 2024. The company permanently banned 700,000 accounts for AI-driven impersonation scams and created a dedicated team of over 100 experts to combat deepfake advertising fraud.
Mobile devices account for 56% of malicious ad traffic. Smaller screens make URL inspection difficult, mobile security tools are often less robust, and users are frequently distracted when browsing on mobile. Forced redirects succeed more often on mobile devices.
Protection requires ad-specific monitoring separate from general brand monitoring, trademark registration with advertising platforms for expedited enforcement, customer education about legitimate advertising practices, and monitoring downstream indicators that might reveal active campaigns.
