Security News Researchers Defeat Most Powerful Ad Blockers, Declare a ‘New Arms Race’

[Kubla]

Content source

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/xwjzka/researchers-defeat-most-powerful-ad-blockers-declare-a-new-arms-race

Perceptual ad blockers will come out on the losing side in the war against internet advertisers and expose users to a host of new attack vectors in the process, the researchers warned.

It was only natural to assume that AI would be used in malware making it harder to stop but it did not dawn on me advertisers would use it to defeat ad blockers and open up a big can of worms for the end user in the process.

 

[HarborFront]

Sure but where is their super adblocker?

 

[509322]

Sure but where is their super adblocker?

It's in the article.

 

[oldschool]

Yes, they will be able to defeat filter lists somehow, someday. I'm not so sure they will be able to defeat the likes of uBO, Nano Adblocker, etc. when these are used in Medium or Hard mode, which the article makes no mention of. So there is still some hope for the forces of good, I believe. :X3:

Also, I tried experimenting on Yahoo's homepage with Nano Adblocker in medium mode with ALL default and added filters disabled, used element picker to clean up the remaining 'uglies' and voila - a totally clean, ad-free page that loaded as fast as my machine would allow. The Hated One would be proud, I'm sure! Viva la revolucion!

 

[upnorth]

Sure but where is their super adblocker?

citp/ad-blocking

 

[MikeV]

uBO, Nano Adblocker, etc. when these are used in Medium or Hard mode

Medium or Hard mode? Sorry for my ignorance....

 

[HarborFront]

citp/ad-blocking

It;s available in Chrome Store

Perceptual Ad Highlighter

From Chrome Store

**Please Note**:
- This extension does not remove ads entirely but covers them with a translucent cover that says "This is an ad" or "Adchoices Identified"
- This extension is only designed to detect advertisements and Facebook and with the AdChoices icon; it does not detect advertisements with different disclosure standards.

 

[Arequire]

Medium or Hard mode? Sorry for my ignorance....

Medium Mode
Hard Mode

TL;DR: In Medium mode you're blocking all third-party iframes and scripts. In Hard mode you're blocking all third-party resources.

 

[RejZoR]

Because making an "Ai" ad blocker somehow isn't a thing lol. If they make "Ai" ads t bypass lists, someone will make "Ai" adblocker that intelligently picks ads and blocks them without using any lists. You just know this will happen eventually...

 

[Eddie Morra]

Because making an "Ai" ad blocker somehow isn't a thing lol. If they make "Ai" ads t bypass lists, someone will make "Ai" adblocker that intelligently picks ads and blocks them without using any lists. You just know this will happen eventually...

I love how you wrote "Ai" instead of Ai.

You sir know what you're talking about.

Good job.

 

[509322]

Because making an "Ai" ad blocker somehow isn't a thing lol. If they make "Ai" ads t bypass lists, someone will make "Ai" adblocker that intelligently picks ads and blocks them without using any lists. You just know this will happen eventually...

Those that wish to circumvent already have Ai\ML. Criminal enterprises already have powerful Ai\ML. Malc0ders have been defeating Ai\ML for years.

The whole "NextGen Ai\ML will protect you" is all marketing. Ai\ML is just detection by another name (because it certainly isn't prevention). Whether or not it is considered a scam is up to the person to decide.

Some of America's most hardened systems absolutely will not use Ai. And why would that be ?

 

[RejZoR]

I love how you wrote "Ai" instead of Ai.

You sir know what you're talking about.

Good job.

These days, anything that has two IF statements in the code is declared Ai. It's really sad lol