Pixalate Sets New Standard for Programmatic Advertising Quality and Trust by Introducing Security Risk Assessment of Sellers

Global Seller Trust Index Adds Malware Scores and Industry Rankings; Key Findings Include 70 Percent of Sellers Exposed to Malware-Driven Ad Fraud

Santa Monica, Calif., – May 19, 2015 – Pixalate, Inc.,the leading data intelligence platform, today released its April 2015 Global Seller Trust Index™ (GSTI™) -- the rating standard for programmatic advertising -- announcing the addition of Malware Risk Exposure™ and Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) Verticals. These enhancements allow media buyers to objectively measure inventory quality and security risk of sellers. This new analysis revealed that more than 70 percent of sellers are exposed to malware-driven ad fraud and one in 20 Internet users were infected. The monthly Pixalate GSTI™ is based on an analysis of 100 billion ad impressions, 350 million IP addresses and more than 400 programmatic sellers.

More info at Pixalate Seller Trust Index.

Other key findings include:

• Overall, OpenX ranked the highest, overtaking Google AdExchange from the previous month.
• Of the top 12 industries tracked, OpenX and Rubicon led in five categories each, while Google AdExchange came in third place, leading in two categories.
• Technology and computing was the industry with the most malware accounting for 30 percent of malware traffic.

More info at www.pixalate.com/sellertrustindex

Growth of online advertising coupled with its ability to target specific users and organizations, has made it one of the most effective channels for security attacks,” said Jalal Nasir, CEO of Pixalate. “Trust in advertising cannot be restored without first addressing the cybersecurity risks it poses to enterprises and consumers. This is a complex and growing problem as many buyers, including reputable brands, purchase seemingly legitimate inventory. Unbeknownst to them, some of the inventory has been compromised and ultimately leads to a negative impact on consumer trust and brand integrity.

Complex interactions underlying the ad ecosystem have been exploited by these attackers to hide their true identity. Studies such as one conducted by US government, clearly indicate consumer risk of being infected through an advertising channel is bigger than ever before.

A noteworthy breakthrough of this version of the Pixalate GSTI is the ability to break sellers down by IAB verticals which enables brands and media buyers to make better optimization decisions at the campaign-level.

Methodology Update

Pixalate has solved the complex problem of benchmarking the security hygiene of real-time ad delivery systems by continuously analyzing, mapping and monitoring relevant transactions in real-time. Pixalate’s ability to analyze darknets, owned and operated by malicious organizations, has been the key in evaluating the true security performance of programmatic sellers. The Pixalate GSTI™ examines data from real time transactions and publicly available data to calculate malware risk, pricing, fraud, brand safety, engagement, network and inventory. All metrics are normalized to a range from 0 to 99; the higher score indicates better quality and the least risk.

The Malware Risk Exposure™ is based on a proprietary algorithm which evaluates sellers on three dimensions:

• Ads served on infected user machines
• Ads served on domains depositing malware
• Security rating of a comprehensive list of ad server domains owned and operated by sellers

About the Pixalate Global Seller Trust Index
Pixalate Global Seller Trust Index is the rating standard for programmatic advertising. It delivers data-driven measure of quality and security integrity of programmatic sellers. Pixalate continuously analyzes, rates and monitors sellers quality, performance and security posture using billions of real time transactions, corresponding web pages quality and external web quality data. The April GSTI is available as part of the Pixalate Media Rating Terminal. More info at www.pixalate.com/sellertrustindex

About Pixalate
Pixalate, Inc. is a leading global intelligence platform and real time fraud protection provider. Pixalate is a Media Rating Council certified vendor for display ad viewability. For more information, visit www.pixalate.com.