DataXu's Industry-Leading Fraud Protection Stops Methbot In Its Tracks

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwired - Dec 21, 2016) - DataXu, a leading provider of programmatic marketing software, today announced the results of its recent findings related to Methbot, thought to be the most devastating and costly fraudulent attack on digital advertisers ever uncovered.

During a rigorous discovery process to determine the impact of Methbot on advertisers using the DataXu platform, the company found that only .08% of daily media spend in December could be attributed to fraudulent Methbot IP addresses. This compares to $5M per day of total fraudulent spending across all advertisers globally estimated by White Ops, the firm that discovered the fraud.

DataXu employs a defense-in-depth approach to fraud protection, which utilizes multiple filters to ensure ads are delivered to real consumers in a safe and fraud-free environment. This always-on approach to eliminating fraud successfully protected DataXu's customers from Methbot, limiting spend to a miniscule dollar amount per day throughout the month of December across the entire platform.

"When tested by a major threat, our defenses held strong," said Dr. Bill Simmons, CTO, EVP Product Development and Co-founder, DataXu. "During our discovery process, we've determined a negligible impact of Methbot on our clients thanks to our in-depth, always on protection that is in place to stop any attack. We are working closely with our partners, both on the measurement and supply sides, to continue to protect our customers' investments as a top priority."

DataXu immediately took additional action when the Methbot threat was disclosed, blocking all IP addresses associated with the fraudulent operation that had not already been filtered out through existing fraud protection measures.

"DataXu's customers suffered very little exposure to Methbot thanks to the multiple layers of fraud protection proactively built into the DataXu platform," continued Simmons. "That's the beauty of our defense-in-depth approach -- regardless of the attack type, our customers are protected from malicious players looking to steal their marketing dollars."

DataXu has always been dedicated to shielding its customers from fraudulent attacks, and is proud to offer the industry's first global, omnichannel, 97% Fraud Free Guarantee at no cost to customers for over two years. In 2015 alone, DataXu saved its clients $54 million in wasted ad spend while limiting the overall fraud rate of its platform to 2.84% over the course of the year.

About DataXu
DataXu's mission is to make marketing better using data science. The world's top brands and agencies use DataXu to better understand and engage customers across all devices and media formats. Its solution provides marketers with unparalleled Media Activation, Marketing Analytics and Data Management capabilities. With sixteen offices in eleven countries, DataXu's full-stack solution is powering the marketing transformation of the world's most valuable brands.