It hurts even the most savvy advertisers—fraudulently costing them millions of dollars per month. The botnet also hurts premium publishers, as advertisers do not have the tools necessary to determine where and when their ad optimization efforts are being gamed.
Here's just a small selection of the advertisers whose advertising campaigns have been gamed by this sophisticated botnet:
American Express, AT&T, BMW, Brightroll, Chase, Citi, Delivery.com, Disneyland Resort, Dodge, edX, Equifax, Ford, Fujifilm, Jaguar, LivingSocial, Mars, McDonald’s, Monster.com, Nationwide, Petco, Sprint, Time Warner Cable, TransUnion and Zipcar.