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Phishing is the most prevalent type of cyber-attack today and is recognized as the leading source of data breaches with significant consequences for both individuals and corporations. Web-based phishing attacks are the most frequent with…
URLs are central to a myriad of cyber-security threats, from phishing to the distribution of malware. Their inherent ease of use and familiarity is continuously abused by attackers to evade defences and deceive end-users. Seemingly…
Malicious advertisement URLs pose a security risk since they are the source of cyber-attacks, and the need to address this issue is growing in both industry and academia. Generally, the attacker delivers an attack vector to the user by…
Websites use third-party ads and tracking services to deliver targeted ads and collect information about users that visit them. These services put users' privacy at risk, and that is why users' demand for blocking these services is growing.…
On the modern web, trackers and advertisers frequently construct and monetize users' detailed behavioral profiles without consent. Despite various studies on web tracking mechanisms and advertisements, there has been no rigorous study…
Online advertising represents a main instrument for publishers to fund content on the World Wide Web. Unfortunately, a significant number of online advertisements often accommodates potentially malicious content, such as cryptojacking…
In Android apps, their developers frequently place app promotion ads, namely advertisements to promote other apps. Unfortunately, the inadequate vetting of ad content allows malicious developers to exploit app promotion ads as a new…
Websites employ third-party ads and tracking services leveraging cookies and JavaScript code, to deliver ads and track users' behavior, causing privacy concerns. To limit online tracking and block advertisements, several ad-blocking (black)…
Online advertisers and analytics services (or trackers), are constantly tracking users activities as they access web services either through browsers or a mobile apps. Numerous tools such as browser plugins and specialized mobile apps have…
The rise of ad-blockers is viewed as an economic threat by online publishers, especially those who primarily rely on ad- vertising to support their services. To address this threat, publishers have started retaliating by employing ad-block…
The rise in phishing attacks via e-mail and short message service (SMS) has not slowed down at all. The first thing we need to do to combat the ever-increasing number of phishing attacks is to collect and characterize more phishing cases…
Perceptual ad-blocking is a novel approach that detects online advertisements based on their visual content. Compared to traditional filter lists, the use of perceptual signals is believed to be less prone to an arms race with web…
Being able to check whether an online advertisement has been targeted is essential for resolving privacy controversies and implementing in practice data protection regulations like GDPR, CCPA, and COPPA. In this paper we describe the…
The intrusiveness and the increasing invasiveness of online advertising have, in the last few years, raised serious concerns regarding user privacy and Web usability. As a reaction to these concerns, we have witnessed the emergence of a…
The daily deluge of alerts is a sombre reality for Security Operations Centre (SOC) personnel worldwide. They are at the forefront of an organisation's cybersecurity infrastructure, and face the unenviable task of prioritising threats…
Online Social Networks (OSNs) witness a rise in user activity whenever an event takes place. Malicious entities exploit this spur in user-engagement levels to spread malicious content that compromises system reputation and degrades user…
Phishing attacks are an increasingly potent web-based threat, with nearly 1.5 million websites created on a monthly basis. In this work, we present the first study towards identifying such attacks through phishing reports shared by users on…
With the convergence of Internet and telephony, new applications (e.g., WhatsApp) have emerged as an important means of communication for billions of users. These applications are becoming an attractive medium for attackers to deliver spam…
Adblocking tools like Adblock Plus continue to rise in popularity, potentially threatening the dynamics of advertising revenue streams. In response, a number of publishers have ramped up efforts to develop and deploy mechanisms for…
The emergence of online services in our daily lives has been accompanied by a range of malicious attempts to trick individuals into performing undesired actions, often to the benefit of the adversary. The most popular medium of these…