Security News > 2020 > April > Bot creates millions of fake eyeballs to rip off smart-TV advertisers
Researchers have uncovered the biggest connected-TV ad fraud operation they've ever seen, fueled with fake ad views seen by bogus eyeballs that actually belonged to a bot network they named ICEBUCKET. Bot-mitigation security firm White Ops said on Thursday that at its peak - January 2020 - the ICEBUCKET bot operation impersonated more than 2 million people in over 30 countries.
ICEBUCKET also cooked up 300 publishers out of thin air, then stole advertising dollars by tricking advertisers into thinking there were real people on the other side of the screen.
What makes ICEBUCKET a sophisticated bot attack is the nuance of how it's faking those headers.
Most of the programmatic traffic the firm saw going through the SSAI platform - 66% - was coming from the scheme, while 15% of the mobile ad programming came from ICEBUCKET. Besides mobile devices, the botnet was also working through set-top devices including Roku.
At 46%, Roku was the top device spoofed by ICEBUCKET. Others included Samsung Tizen Smart TV, Google TV and Android.