TAG awards 9 adtech companies with “Certified Against Malware” seal

The Trustworthy Accountablity Group (TAG) has named nine companies as the initial recipients of the “Certified Against Malware” seal. AppNexus, DataXu, Google, LKQD, OpenX, Publishers Clearing House, Rocket Fuel, Sovrn, and The Media Trust received the seal for implementing TAG’s anti-malware standards.

“You can’t stop fraud without stopping malware because the two are intertwined at nearly every level,” Mike Zaneis, CEO, Trustworthy Accountability Group, told MarTech Today. “Malware is the vehicle that allows fraudsters to create their bot networks and corrupt the digital advertising ecosystem, and today’s announcement is an important step in stopping those criminals and increasing confidence in our supply chain. We commend the first group of companies to receive these seals and look forward to expanding the ranks of certified companies even further over coming months.”

To qualify for TAG’s Certified Against Malware seal, companies must adhere to a set of guidelines based on their role in the supply chain, including TAG’s best practices for scanning malware released last year.

The nine companies are also partnering in TAG’s Malware Threat Sharing Hub, which provides a central resource for sharing and accessing near real-time information about malware attacks. Companies can access it to keep their own defense systems up to date, and TAG makes information from the Hub available to law enforcement agencies to assist in criminal prosecutions.

The industry group has also certified companies in its programs aimed at combating ad fraud and piracy.   Last month, TAG launched a tool to help keep ads from running on apps that distribute pirated content.

About The Author

Ginny Marvin

As Third Door Media's paid media reporter, Ginny Marvin writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land and Marketing Land. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She provides search marketing and demand generation advice for ecommerce companies and can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.