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AOL’s Third Screen Media Hacked, Served Up Spam
Update: Platform-A’s official statement on the breach. Original Story below the fold.
Platform-A has determined that the servers that host Third Screen Media’s corporate web site were breached during the weekend of June 6-8, 2008. The breach resulted in malicious code and web pages being loaded on the web server. Third Screen Media’s web site is supported by a third-party hosting provider, which is completely separate from its production ad-serving systems. We have confirmed that the company’s advertising systems have not been impacted and remain secure.
The site has been taken down and all malicious content has been removed. Platform-A’s technical staff is investigating the breach to determine the appropriate changes necessary to secure the systems. Once the appropriate changes have been made, the site will be made operational again.
Jeff Bentley, a reader of our site accidentally stumbled into what seems like a hack by spammers of Third Screen Media, a mobile advertising company that was acquired by AOL in 2007 for $107 million and is now part of Platform A.
While surfing on his Blackberry browser, Bentley found that somehow one his sites had been hacked and there were some spammy links embedded in the header of the pages on that site. All the links were emerging out of Third Screen Media’s domain and were pages built for pharmaceuticals related spam. Essentially Third Screen is serving as a spam-farm for someone. We have written in the past about how WordPress themes are being used to embed spam links and other nefarious stuff. (He has links to everything on his blog.)
Anyway this brings up the question: how secure is Platform A’s ThirdScreenMedia? Or is it someone from within who is mucking around and using the company’s domain to serve up spam. Blame it on the gorgeous blue skies this morning, but I am having a hard time thinking that ThirdScreen themselves could be to blame and offering spam-links as a service ;-).
PS: I will update the post after I hear back from Platform A.
User:spurcill
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JPG, IMified, FeedCrier & other morning bits
Update: I had promised myself that I would take one day off - today that is - trying to de-tox my mind, unwind, and simply refresh the brain. Well its not going to happen - since the beat never stops… here we go…
8020 Publishing, a shining example of my iCompany concept, and publishers of JPG magazine, is going through an upheaval. Derek Powazek has his side of the story after being ousted from the company he started. Damn!
FeedCrier, a little service we have been fans of here at GigaOM has been acquired by IMified, another useful web-based IM service that is a favorite of the Web Worker Daily crew. IMified people have big plans for Feed Crier, including going mobile.
Talking about IM’s, Meebo launched their rooms. I got a demo and it is pretty cool, and finally a monetization strategy. Liz got the skinny as well and did the story before I could, which means more sleep for me.
AOL announced today that it has acquired Third Screen Media, the leading mobile advertising network. This is coming close on the heels of Microsoft buying ScreenTonic. Katie hinted at this coming deal in here Q&A with Third Screen Media CEO last week who said, “AOL is a customer and at times a partner of ours. This is a rumor.” Who’s next? AdMob?
I am going to try and stay offline as much as I can, but before I go, here are three good ones from around our network:
- WebWorkerDaily: 10 things you must do to succeed in web economy.
- NewTeeVee: Kyte.tv got more cash. A lot, though we don’t know exactly how much.
- NewTeeVee: Remember yesterday’s “downloads are dead” news. Well it isn’t quite true.
Till later folks!
Quartz Enterprise Scheduler .NET
3 questions for Third Screen Media
When Microsoft said it will buy mobile ad startup ScreenTonic last week, the first thing a lot of us wondered was who’s next? Mobile ad startups like Third Screen Media and AdMob have been building successful businesses while Internet companies are looking for an easy way into the mobile ad market.
Given Third Screen Media was rumored to be in acquisition talks with Microsoft last year, and more recently AOL, we thought we’d get on the horn with CEO Thomas Burgess and see where he thinks the market is headed. Here’s an edited version of his thoughts:
Q. How do you think the ScreenTonic/Microsoft deal will affect your position and the industry?
A. They do a similar business as us, but are located in Europe — we have a light touch in Europe right now. ScreenTonic is smaller, maybe a third of our size, less expensive, has smaller accounts.
I think the entire interactive ad industry is in a consolidation mode right now. Large interactive media are interested in mobile as a vertical. It’s all about inventory. It’s all the same buyers and the same ad dollars. . . There will be more consolidation and possibly acquisitions for smaller companies too.
Q. We have read about AOL being a prospective buyer of your company? Are those talks happening?
A. AOL is a customer and at times a partner of ours. This is a rumor.
Q. Is there a growing interest in mobile advertising this year? Are carriers showing more interest as well?
A. Carriers are showing a lot more interest and activity. Sprint launched a mobile ad program with Enpocket. Verizon launched mobile ads with us. We have 5 other wireless operators in the U.S. that we will announce soon. Carriers are making a concentrated, if cautious effort.
Advertisers are making a bigger push too. In 2006 advertisers were exploring the market, and campaigns with $75,000 to $100,000 were a big deal. In 2007 there are campaigns with over $1 million.
