Adex Uncovers Abuse of Government and Education Subdomains in iGaming Ad Campaigns

LIMASSOL, Cyprus, Feb. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Adex, the anti-fraud and traffic-quality platform within AdTech Holding, identified and disrupted advertising campaigns that were using third-level subdomains associated with government, municipal, and educational institutions to host iGaming landing pages without authorization from the legitimate domain owners.

The affected domains included assets reserved for public authorities and accredited educational institutions in Indonesia, as well as domains associated with U.S. universities and private-sector organizations in other jurisdictions. These domains were integrated into campaign infrastructure and used to redirect users to commercial iGaming content.

The activity was detected during routine monitoring. Following detection, Adex conducted a technical investigation, suspended the associated campaigns, and initiated requests for clarification and documentation from the advertisers involved. Responses were either not provided or did not substantively explain the domain usage.

Technical analysis

The investigation determined that several incidents were consistent with subdomain takeover, a vulnerability classified by OWASP under A05: Security Misconfiguration. This occurs when an unused subdomain remains linked via CNAME to an external cloud resource that has been deleted, allowing third parties to claim the endpoint and deploy content under a trusted domain without the owner’s awareness.

The misuse was most commonly observed within third-level domain structures. In additional cases, the activity appeared to involve outdated CMS installations, web server vulnerabilities, or compromised administrative credentials, indicating weaknesses in infrastructure management.

Risk implications and preventive guidance

The unauthorized commercial use of institutional domains presents reputational, regulatory, and security risks for domain owners. The case highlights how overlooked DNS configurations and infrastructure gaps can expose high-trust domains to third-party misuse, and underscores the importance of continuous monitoring and preventive controls in advertising ecosystems.

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Mikhail Goryunov
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SOURCE Adex