Virus/Malware Update

Just wanted to update you on the malware virus attack that we have been dealing with for the past several weeks. This is an issue that we take very seriously and one that took a lot of resources to both understand and address. When we learned of the attack, we immediately shut off 3rd party advertising and were soon able to identify the source of this attack. It stemmed from some corrupted 3rd party ad tags that were placed on our network and many others.

The reality is, however, that this is the internet and these types of attacks are happening more frequently to all publishers, big and small. Google is now reporting that malware attacks have affected over 15% of all internet publishers. As such, we are taking a much more aggressive and proactive approach to the prevention of and protection from these types of attacks in the future. 

The most substantial move in this process was to implement a program to scan and monitor virtually all of our ad tags every 15 minutes of every day. This service should help prevent future attacks. MediaTrust works with some of the largest and most prestigious publishers on the web. While no measures are 100% foolproof, we fully expect that this investment will prevent infected tags from running on our network. In the event that any bad ads end up getting launched, the scans will quickly identify and extinguish the culprit.

In addition, we have reduced the number of ad networks that we work with to only those that we have long lasting
relationships at the highest levels. By limiting the number of networks to a select few, we can be more hands on in the monitoring of ads and the resolution of any issues that arise. Finally, we have expanded the role of our ad operations team to include the proactive monitoring and prevention of malware attacks. If you encounter any suspicious ads or activities, please continue to submit them to support@sbnation.com and continue to point all user complaints here as well; however, once submitted, the case will be assigned to our ad ops team for quick and decisive action.

Thank you for your patience during this very unfortunate instance. I am confident that the worst of this is behind us. If you have any questions feel free to reach out to us directly.