AfterDawn: Tech news

Group charged in large $14 million ad-fraud case

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 09 Nov 2011 6:55 User comments (5)

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.

Previous Next  

5 user comments

19.11.2011 19:29

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

29.11.2011 20:35

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

310.11.2011 00:46

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

Isn't that where Encino man was from?

"Betty, Betty nugs"

410.11.2011 02:00

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?

510.11.2011 12:52

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*)

Comments have been disabled for this article.

Latest news

Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets (06 Jun 2023 9:19)
Roomba Combo j7+ is the very first Roomba model to combine robot vacuum with mopping features. And Roomba Combo j7+ does all that with a very clever trick, which tackles the problem with mopping and carpets. But is it any good? We found out.
Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations (02 May 2023 3:38)
Neato Robotics has ceased its operations. American robot vacuum pioneer founded in 2005 has finally called it quits and company will cease its operations and sales. Only a skeleton crew will remain who will keep the servers running until 2028.
5 user comments
How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp (20 Mar 2023 1:25)
The world's most popular messaging platform, Meta-owned WhatsApp has enabled sending messages to yourself. While at first, this might seem like an odd feature, it can be very useful in a lot of situations. ....
18 user comments
How to Enable Bluetooth on Stadia Controller How to Enable Bluetooth on Stadia Controller (11 Feb 2023 1:04)
Google shut down its streaming game service Stadia late last month and this means that some people have Stadia controllers lying around that seem to be of no use. That is fortunately not the ....
2 user comments
Guide: How to Kick Unwanted Guests from Your Netflix Account Guide: How to Kick Unwanted Guests from Your Netflix Account (26 Jan 2023 2:14)
Sharing a Netflix account with a person in a different location is possible and indeed very common, although the company doesn't necessarily enjoy this behavior from their customers. However, ....

News archive