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Is Advertising Fraud Funding Terrorism?

For those who aren’t aware of it, I have a background in Cybercrime and Law Enforcement – before even working in interactive advertising, there was a time where I was devoted to catching cybercriminals and kiddie porn traffickers. There is still a part of me that always wants to catch the bad guy and put him in jail – and have even while working in this Industry been involved in catching fraudsters and criminals, and have put a few of them back in jail. However, it’s come to my attention that there might be something even more devious happening in the industry: the very real possibility that interactive advertising fraud is helping to fund terrorism. During my time running a display ad network, there was a constant influx of people submitting websites to our reviewers that looked like legit websites. They would often copy websites, change a few things – many times it was obvious, sometimes it was pretty damn convincing. Using proxy servers, they’d apply using a US IP address and real postal address. For those who weren’t trained in noticing “little problems” in the websites, it would easily seem that they were actually showing advertising on a legit, highly trafficked website. After a month or so, when the site was making money, they would often then change the pay information on the website to another address, or request a wire to an offshore bank account – hoping that some companies would be too busy to notice or even think twice about it. More than once during my time, the new address was in China, or worse in a country with extensive terrorist ties, including Pakistan, Libya or Syria

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Is Advertising Fraud Funding Terrorism?

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China Mobile and Xinhua announce search engine plans

China’s state-run news agency Xinhua has announced it is developing its own search engine for the mobile web, in partnership with China Mobile Communications Corporation. Both companies will be collaborating to develop an international media company that will include a search engine aimed at Chinese web users, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Xinhua deputy publisher Zhou Xisheng stated: “The venture is a part of broader efforts to safeguard [China's] information security and push forward the robust, healthy and orderly development of China’s new media industry.” The decision is also believed to be more politically motivated than simply a matter of economics, however. Zhou Xisheng added: “The cooperation is an important move to serve the party and the state, thoroughly protect the national interest, safeguard China’s information security, strengthen the establishment of a public opinion front in the new media and broaden the domestic and overseas propaganda influence and the public opinion guidance capability of the Chinese mainstream media.” Home to the world’s largest internet population at 420 million, China’s search revenues are predicted to have significant growth ahead. The country’s search engine market is currently dominated by Baidu , which saw its profits more than double since January - the same time Google announced it would revise its operations in China .

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China Mobile and Xinhua announce search engine plans

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Baidu profits double as search engine dominates China

Local search engine Baidu has picked up Google’s losses in China’s search market - and then some. The leading Chinese-language search engine reported on Wednesday that its profits more than doubled in the last quarter, ending 30 June with net revenue of 837.4 million yuan (

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Cloud removed by China on Google Android platform

Google said it was “very pleased” that the Chinese government has renewed its ICP licence, thereby resolving a six-month stand-off. Had it not done so, it would not have had the platform to develop and market Android on the mainland. Google’s ICP licence now runs to 2012, subject to annual renewals. On the strength of this agreement, Google rose in Nasdaq trading as the company avoided being expelled from the world’s largest internet market. “We look forward to continuing to provide web search and local products to our users in China,” the company said on its blog last Friday. Google’s stance has been rigid since January this year, when it announced it was no longer willing to censor results on Google.cn. The company previously announced: “We currently automatically redirect everyone using Google.cn to Google.com.hk, our Hong Kong search engine. This redirect, which offers unfiltered search in simplified Chinese, has been working well for our users and for Google.” Now, they have changed their tune and this time it not solely because of its entry into China’s search market. This time its decisions seem more to be based on the mobile market.

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Cloud removed by China on Google Android platform

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China renews Google’s license

Google has confirmed that the Chinese government has renewed its ICP license in the country, after the search giant made concessions to comply with Chinese law . “We are very pleased that the government has renewed our ICP license and we look forward to continuing to provide web search and local products to our users in China,” said a post on the Official Google Blog. The California search company withdrew its operations from Beijing in March to set up base in Hong Kong, where rules over censorship are less strict. However, BBC News reported that many were concerned that the company’s recent action of simply redirecting Chinese users to a landing page with a link to the Hong Kong site would not be enough to satisfy the nation’s authorities Google CEO Eric Schmidt said he was optimistic about the company’s prospects, telling attendees of a recent conference in Sun Valley, Idaho: “We would expect we would get the necessary licence. “We now expect to get a renewal.” Although he did concede: “Our operations in China are completely at the discretion of the Chinese government.” Today’s blog post explains: “Ever since we launched Google .cn, our search engine for mainland Chinese users, we have done our best to increase access to information while abiding by Chinese law. “This has not always been an easy balance to strike, especially since our January announcement that we were no longer willing to censor results on Google.cn. “Over the next few days we’ll end the redirect entirely, taking all our Chinese users to our new landing page - and today we re-submitted our ICP license renewal application based on this approach. “As a company we aspire to make information available to users everywhere, including China.

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China renews Google’s license

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Google tries another ‘new approach’ to China

The Google-China debacle over web privacy issues was believed to have ended when the search giant moved its China operations to Hong Kong in March - but in a new development, Google may now face closure of its China portal completely if it is unable to reach an agreement with mainland internet authorities. Google is now facing time pressure to resolve its issues with Beijing over censorship of search results before the end of its ICP license, which expires on 30 June. Without such a license, the Guardian reports that the commercial domain of Google .cn could effectively expire, causing the search engine to “go dark” across the nation. Users visiting Google’s simplified Chinese language portal at google.com.hk will now be redirected to a landing page that provides a link to the Hong Kong search site.

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Google tries another ‘new approach’ to China

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Google boss believes smartphones are key to democratising information

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt has reaffirmed his company’s aim to be a driving force for good in the world, by explaining how Google’s breakthroughs in smartphones and search engines are bringing about a generational shift towards the democratisation of information worldwide. “Over my lifetime, we are going to go from a small number of people having access to most of the world’s information, to virtually everybody in the world having access to virtually all of the world’s information,” Schmidt told The Guardian. “That’s because of web search, cheap phones and automatic translation. That’s a pretty amazing achievement and Google is part of that.” Smartphones were identified as a key focus of advancing the company’s agenda, as the Google boss explained the development of Android operating systems and Google-branded phones at the Guardian’s Activate Summit. Despite Gartner rating Android as the world’s fourth most popular mobile operating system for the first quarter of 2010 - behind Nokia’s Symbian, Research in Motion’s Blackberry and Apple’s iPhone - Schmidt is hopeful about his company’s fortunes in the mobile web sphere, particularly as Google’s vast network of data centres means it could potentially handle more traffic than its competitors. “I believe that the very best engineering is now going on the mobile devices - the hardest problems and the most clever solutions,” Schmidt explained.

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Google boss believes smartphones are key to democratising information

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Google’s government request tool shines a light on censorship

Google has lifted the lid on how nations across the world request user data or censorship of its search engine , in the wake of the debacle with China . Although Google said it could not provide statistics on censorship requests made by the Chinese government, due to these being regarded as ’state secrets’, the search seraph has launched an online tool to help break down the figures for other countries worldwide in the interests of freedom of expression and greater transparency. The BBC reports that Google’s move towards disclosure is “in the spirit” of the Global Network Initiative, a group that also includes rival companies Yahoo! and Microsoft among its members, that is committed to freedom of expression online. The country with the highest number of data requests on Google’s list is Brazil with 3,663, followed closely by the United States with 3,580. The UK was third, with a much smaller 1,166 data requests

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Google’s government request tool shines a light on censorship

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Cyber-attacks stole code for Google’s password system

New information has surfaced revealing some of the sensitive losses from December’s cyber-attacks against Google and other companies, including the code for Google’s Single Sign-On password system. A source told The New York Times that the cyber-attack began when a Google employee in China received an instant message through Microsoft Messenger. By clicking the link, the employee inadvertently gave the hackers access to their PC, from which they were able to access “a critical group of software developers” at Google’s Mountain View headquarters as well as the software repository storing the source code for the Single Sign-On system. Previously known as Gaia, named after the Greek goddess of the Earth, Single Sign-On controls access to almost all of Google’s online services, including the sign-on details for millions of Gmail users and the company’s business applications. The hackers also gained access to Google’s Moma directory , containing details of employees’ work activities that are believed to have been used to track down certain workers by name. However, the New York Times reported that the hackers “do not appear” to have obtained the passwords of individual Gmail users during the attack, which took place over two days in December 2009. The aftermath of the cyber-attacks saw Google taking a stand against China’s strict policies of web censorship that culminated in the company withdrawing from Beijing and moving its China operations to Hong Kong . Some media commentators believe the move may have lasting repercussions between Chinese and Western relations.

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Cyber-attacks stole code for Google’s password system

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Google first quarter profits beat expectations

Google has boasted a 37 per cent rise in net profits for the first quarter of 2010, largely thanks to increased spending by online advertisers. Google’s boost in revenue is being viewed as indicative that the recession is finally coming to an end. The London Evening Standard reports that Google’s revenue climbed 23 per cent across the quarter to arrive at $6.78 billion (

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