Group charged in large $14 million ad-fraud case

Six Estonian natives have been arrested today and charged with a scheme that brought in $14 million in fraudulent profits.

Four million computers worldwide were hijacked, and Internet users were often re-routed to sites that helped rack of the profits via ads.

Of those computers, 500,000 were in the U.S. and included PCs being used by government agencies like NASA.

Reads the indictment:

The defendants engaged in a massive and sophisticated scheme that infected at least 4 million computers located in over 100 countries with malicious software or malware. Without the computer users' knowledge or permission, the malware digitally hijacked the infected computers to facilitate the fraud.

The re-routed sites were pages that mimicked legitimate sites like ESPN.com, Amazon.com, and Netflix.com and profits were made whenever users clicked on ads.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 9 Nov 2011 18:55

dali

Good to know that computers in government agencies can be easily hijacked. o.O

"You know, it seems that quotes on the internet are becoming less and less reliable." -Abraham Lincoln.

9.11.2011 19:29 #1

Mysttic

Good to know it only took them this long to get on top of this, this has been going on for years.

9.11.2011 20:35 #2

hearme0

Estonian?????????????????

Isn't that where Encino man was from?

"Betty, Betty nugs"

10.11.2011 00:46 #3

CarpeSol

Methinks gov't policies on computer security could use some work. What was someone at NASA doing i wonder, that allowed the computer to become infected? Is that person still working there on the payroll of our tax dollars? What is our tax money being used for by these people if stuff like this can happen?

10.11.2011 02:00 #4

SProdigy

Originally posted by CarpeSol: Methinks gov't policies on computer security could use some work. What was someone at NASA doing i wonder, that allowed the computer to become infected? Is that person still working there on the payroll of our tax dollars? What is our tax money being used for by these people if stuff like this can happen? Happened all the time within my IT. It's called a laptop on a public network. Once you move off of our firewall, all kinds of crap can (and usually does) get on someone's computer. Most people don't know how to click on "close" or the big "X" unless it's their antivirus telling them to upgrade! (How annoying! *sarcasm*)

10.11.2011 12:52 #5

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