Ad blocking is network security.
Friendly reminder to BLOCK ALL ADVERTISEMENTS!
They are a legitimate cybersecurity threat (not to mention all the scams).
Install uBlock Origin in Firefox, ditch Chrome entirely, use adblocking DNS, and consider setting up a PiHole at home or using AdNauseum.
I have only very surface level knowledge of ad blocking.
I’m using Waterfox, UBlock and Ad Nauseam but could you point me in the direction of DNS and/or PiHole, if possible for beginners?
When I looked for it I got a bit overwhelmed by the search results.
Sure, DNS is fairly straightforward, you just set your DNS to whatever the address you want to use is, for example, AdGuard uses 94.140.14.14 and 94.140.15.15 (pick either one, if one seems slow, try the other). The process of setting the DNS address will vary depending on which OS you are using, there are instructions for most OSes available here under Option 2: https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html
PiHole is a bit more complex, but basically you’re setting up a raspberry Pi to block stuff on your home network. There’s tons of documentation out there but this kinda gives you an idea of what it does and how to set it up https://www.crosstalksolutions.com/the-worlds-greatest-pi-hole-and-unbound-tutorial-2023/
Thank you
I found Quad9 for a DNS but I think PiHole is out of my comfort zone, at least for now.
I only have the ublock ion firefox, and ditching chrome. I can’t get rid of microsoft edge though somehow deleting it is not an option and idk how they surveil what I do on firefox when their windows mysteriously open or I am tricked into opening one when trying to access the control panel or the like.
Thanks for the tips on the adblocking dns and pihole or adnauseum. Frankly though, I see near zero adds just with ublock.
You can definitely escape Edge if you use Linux. Mint is a pretty good starter distro (short for distribution, basically just a version of Linux).
In Windows, you can still change your default browser to Firefox but Edge is baked in by default. There might be some modified versions of Windows that limit or remove Edge but I’d stick with using Linux if possible.
I’m always worried AdNauseum will query some child porn without me knowing it. It makes me wonder if that’s ever happened.
I have never heard of that happening and am doubtful it would be something that ever happened.
why is this terrorist nation still allowed to be a fucking nation? i mean i know it’s because a lot of people profit from them but sheesh…
Eventually we’ll get a list of all the groups that bought spyware from NSO, with the approval of the Israeli government. That list will include basically every globally important group, from the US government to mega-corps
We already know it was used in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi
Because nations serve the interests of the elites. This terrorist nation, serves the interests of the elites more than other nations.
Thus, the elites get more nation per nation. Of course they are not gonna let such a deal go.
Like a stux to a flame, burned by the fire My greed is blind, can’t you see my desire?
Ah, I assume I’m missing a song lyric reference I might have bumbled into. Oh well.
Does it really matter that it was an Israeli advertising company? Would you hold this against any other country?
I’m just saying, there are upwards of 700 “trusted” partners on some websites, chances are that some of them also try to maximise their profit margins in a similar way. I at least wouldn’t hold it against Ireland, for example, as a nation, if one of their tech firms does the same.
Don’t blame on colonialism what can adequately be explained by capitalism, or something.
israel only exists because of capitalism, and i’d be pissed if ireland installed malware too. except … see… ireland isn’t doing terrorism or genocide. so… there’s that
Nations in their modern form all exist because of capitalism. Israel is actually “special” in that way, because it’s the Wests last mostly settler-colonial project, which results in all kinds of strange and anachronistic contradictions.
In this hypothetical, not Ireland, an Irish company. Would you blame the Irish government for actions of an Irish company?
…yes. Not “company from ireland” but “company run by the irish gov.”
because that’s what israeli companies are.
This is big news. Blocking ads is now a matter of cyber security. Regulators and organizations need to step in. I don’t see internet ads dying but they definitely should.
Blocking ads is
nowa matter of cyber security.fixed. it always has been.
https://citizenlab.ca/research/how-discover-tech-turned-targeted-ads-into-a-pipeline-for-spyware/
Here’s the full blog post.
They didn’t mention much about the attack chain itself, but they did mention it was capable of targeting both android/iOS and windows.
Is there some way for us to block ads at network-level on networks we don’t control? Something that allowed us to connect to public wifis or work networks and prevent ads from loading, therefore messing with the digital economy if we did this on a large scale?
Edit: I didn’t explain my thoughts very well. I mean blocking ads for other people around me. I know that’s probably not even legal, but would be awesome, if possible
On Android this is possible: under “Network & Internet” settings there is a field called “Private DNS.” Simply set your own preferred DNS server here.
Adguard has public DNS options that block all advertising, even inside apps, though for state-level exploits as described in this article I’d assume the only way to be 100% sure is to run your own PiHole.The only caveat I’d add is using the Private DNS function can sometimes break WiFi login pages or cause other network issues - a couple times I’ve found I need to revert to “automatic” to get a WiFi or app to connect properly
The large scale part won’t be possible without some type of network control.
The super easy way is replacing the DNS at the router (in the DHCP config) with some public, ad-blocking DNS. But you need access to the router’s config.
You can find very cheap routers with default credentials in the wild.
I feel like there’s at least one historical example of a worm being released that was designed to attack home routers and patch the vulnerability it exploited, but my search is failing.
Anyway, that’s the sort of tactic you’d need to do what you’re asking.
That’s exactly what I’d love to be able to do. Just imagine, a “mere” 10% of routers affected would be enough to give a significant reduction in ad revenue to some big corps
I think you’re on to something.
This predatory ad shit works because most people don’t care enough to do something about it. That same cohort of people likely also won’t care enough to fix the “issue.” They’ll hear about it, see their email still works fine and move on with life.
Edit: could we design something like a community vpn project? Something like… I don’t know… like Tor, but for a completely different purpose? Something you can install and it routes your traffic through globally distributed nodes which automatically filter your traffic to remove ads and other security measures?
That would keep things opt-in. It would keep control of the system / filtering bound by community interest. We could set up separate filtering systems too — in case that would be required. Users can pick which filter package their traffic is treated with.
I don’t have a lot of bandwidth, but I definitely have some to spare. I am not using my Internet 24/7.
Edit 2: to be clear, I don’t really think opt-in is justified here’s though. The interesting question isn’t whether we can block advertisements for strangers. It’s whether we can justify protecting people from a demonstrably dangerous infrastructure, even when they haven’t requested that protection.
Consider three premises:
- An infrastructure exposes people to harms they generally don’t understand or meaningfully consent to.
- A third party possesses a mechanism that can reduce those harms without requiring individual participation.
- The intervention introduces substantially less risk than it prevents.
I don’t think requiring explicit, individualized consent is automatically the most defensible ethical position. We already accept similar arrangements in cybersecurity.
Email providers filter malicious attachments without asking recipients about each one. Network administrators block connections to malicious destinations. Browsers prevent known dangerous downloads.
The important precedent is that protective defaults can be justified without affirmative consent for every individual intervention.
However, those examples involve services or systems with an established responsibility for protecting their users. Therefore I think our approach should be similarly designed. A stranger modifying somebody else’s communications has no comparable authority.
Silently installing protective software through advertising exploits is theoretically conceivable, but it would reproduce the same unauthorized device-compromise problem we’re trying to eliminate. I would be cautious about this — what if your infrastructure can itself because a centralized attack surface?
I also wonder about what methods can target ad infrastructure directly, though. That’s another approach.
A localized DNS server with PI hole, or just a firewall in between your device and the on-site network could do it. DHCP makes it difficult to get this to people without being malicious about it, and most tech would detect and block it if you tried.
NextDNS or similar custom DNS.
You can run a PiHole or similar at home to block ads, but that doesn’t work when you’re on the go.
Once in a while I need to turn it off because a link in an email doesn’t work (blacklisted tracking domain, but also how you unsubscribe) and for that brief moment, seeing the full, unblocked internet the way regular people see it is shocking.
They say that millions of users worldwide have been served ads by Discover-Tech since 2024, including in Yemen, Brazil, Mexico and Czechia.
You can bet Westerners are included.
It would be more useful to know what vulnerabilities are being exploited here. The fact that the possibility to hack people is used if it exists is not surprising. Even if these people didn’t do it, others might, which is why this shouldn’t be possible in the first place.
Through cookie sharing agreements they touched hundreds of millions of computers it’s thought.
From the comments:
schleck8 37 minutes ago | prev | next [–]
This is even crazier than the last time Citizen Lab found an Israeli zero-click spyware (Pegasus). You could call it a sequel reply
icantevenhold 8 minutes ago | parent | next [–]
Don’t call it a comeback, I been here for years Rocking my peers and putting suckas in fear
