McAfee Strikes Deal with Adgregate Market

The security developer's SECURE tools will be rolled into e-commerce advertising innovations to fight "malvertising" and improve marketability.

Security provider McAfee Inc. has established a partnership with online advertising developer Adgregate Markets that will enable consumers to securely interact within distributed commerce ads and application s for online, mobile, and social networks.

The new initiative makes way for what McAfee calls "the industry's first secure advertising, and the industry's first consumer privacy-certified social commerce platform."

Under this partnership, McAfee has certified the security and privacy of Adgregate's advertising products. In turn, Adgregate, through its direct and partner sales channels, will sell Adgregate products featuring the with the McAfee "SECURE" trademark.

The McAfee SECURE service performs daily site scanning that tests a retailer's Web site for more than 10,000 vulnerabilities. Together with Adgregate, the scanning will secure advertising products. It will help prevent rich media ads and distributed commerce solutions from becoming conduits for malvertising (malware found to be lurking in online ads).

The Malvertising Threat
According to the McAfee 2009 Threat Predictions Report, malicious advertising, or "malvertising," is a chief security risk for consumers.

"A big driver in the increase in malvertising is the widespread availability of rich media ads and applications, which can allow malicious code to be embedded inside," explains McAfee in a press release to EH Publishing. "Malicious ads have exploited vulnerabilities in established advertising networks, social networks, and leading publishers, with increasing frequency. "

"The shift toward a distributed Web," explains McAfee vice president and general manager of consumer, mobile, and small business Todd Gebhart, "where content and commerce are available anywhere, poses significant security challenges for advertisers, as retailers are no longer under the protective umbrella of the security mechanisms enabled on their primary Web site."

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