Lowe's staff members were targeted via a Google ad for an employee portal claiming to be associated with the retailer. It's not a problem with Google, per se; malicious ads can also show up in queries using other search engines like Microsoft's Bing. "You see something appearing on a Google search, you kind of assume it is something valid," said Stuart Madnick, professor of information technology at MIT Sloan School of Management. Also avoid calling a telephone number listed in a sponsored ad because it could be a fake telephone number. Many privacy browsers have embedded ad blockers; consumers may still see sponsored ads, but they will see fewer of them, which minimizes the chances of malvertising.

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Persons: Malwarebytes, Jérôme Segura, Erich Kron, Segura, Salesforce, It's, Bing, Stuart Madnick, Madnick, malvertising, isn't, there's, Avinash Collis, Kron, Chris Pierson, Pierson, Collis Organizations: U.S, Corporate, Google, MIT Sloan School of Management, Clearing, Gap.com, Consumers, Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz Locations: malvertising