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Cybercrime and cyber threats do not have a very long or illustrious history. In fact, it just came into the picture when the internet was booming. Despite its novelty, its severity cannot be understated. Cybersecurity experts predict that global cybercrimes are expected to rise and could result in $10.5 trillion losses annually by 2025.
As a result, there has been a necessity for more comprehensive and organised cybersecurity measures to prevent rising crimes on the internet. Furthermore, various industries in India, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID outbreak, are experiencing massive engagement of audiences and customers through digital means. Resultantly, it makes them more and more vulnerable to digital frauds and attacks.
An Overview: Digital Ad Fraud
Cybercrime isn't confined to banking or financial frauds only, that defraud customers of their hard-earned money. Instead, fraudsters are becoming more inventive, developing new malicious ways to steal money from marketers and major brands as well. Digital Marketing was envisioned as the future of marketing, predicted to overtake the traditional methods, because of its immense potential. However, it became a hub for scammers looking to deceive marketers and brands. In 2021, $59 billion were reported in loss, due to digital ad frauds. Networks of malicious bots are costing brands every day and this is happening at an alarming rate.
Enterprises have started spending more and more on digital advertising, which has also piqued the interest of criminals looking to make quick money. The more money an enterprise spends on advertising, the more it stands to lose due to digital ad fraud. Fraudsters tend to use fraudulent practices such as Click Injection, Ad Stacking, Domain Spoofing, etc to defraud marketers. As a result, ad fraud detection has become an essential step in ensuring the safety of brands and the interests of their customers.
Importance of Ad Fraud Detection
Like any other cybercriminal activity, digital ad frauds are also relatively new. Thus its modern roots make it challenging to combat such frauds. In most cases, marketers are uninformed or unaware of the fact that they have been scammed. Thus, it is more important than ever to fight such malicious activities.
Most ad fraud affects the advertising budget of an organisation without producing results. These ad frauds claim credit for coincidental site visits or generate fake clicks and impressions, which results in wastage of ad spending of marketers. Eventually, this will have a negative impact on the marketing strategies of the enterprises and wasted efforts. In addition, it can also do reputational damage to brands, when associated with inappropriate or objectionable content. When a brand is a victim of ad fraud for an extended period of time, it can significantly lose its potential customers.
Heading towards the good part, it is safe to say that the Indian startup ecosystem is fortunate to have some of the most talented and committed individuals who are determined to tackle these problems. Many of these young entrepreneurs have recognised the importance of cybersecurity, especially in this ever-growing digital space.
A recent article published by YourStory details the path and goals of six Indian cybersecurity startups that are redefining the digital security landscape. We, at Com Olho, are proud to be able to share this platform and convey our goals and aspirations; to remove digital ad fraud from our digital landscape.
All enterprises, large and small, should understand the importance of digital security. With the rise in cyberattacks, Com Olho has realised the significance of cybersecurity solutions and is committed to assisting brands and marketers to safeguard their interests. Com Olho takes pride in actively contributing to the advancement of India's cybersecurity business and is determined to add value to this ever-growing industry. We are a Gurugram-based cyber security startup that uses patented technology for non-rule-based digital ad fraud detection.
In Conclusion
Every organisation must protect itself from the costs of ad fraud and they must detect it early and put a stop to it as soon as possible. Com Olho, in this aspect, has always helped brands and is on a mission to assist Enterprises and the Government to create a Digital Safe India.