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Hackers Hijack Millions of Computers in 'Massive' Fraud Case
From: InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>
Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2011 02:14:56 -0600 (CST)
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-09/hackers-hijack-millions-of-computers-in-massive-fraud-case.html By Patricia Hurtado and Michael Riley Bloomberg November 09, 2011The U.S. charged seven people with a “massive” computer intrusion scheme that used malicious software to manipulate online advertising, diverted users to rogue servers and infected more than 4 million computers in more than 100 countries.
One Russian and six Estonians were charged with wire fraud and conspiracy in a 27-count indictment unsealed today by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. The cyber-hijacking victims included at least a half million individuals, businesses in the U.S. and government agencies, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Bharara said.
Over at least four years, an information technology company based in Estonia made millions of dollars by manipulating the Internet searches of infected computers, redirecting users to sites they never intended to visit or swapping out advertisements on web pages, according to the indictment.
“We believe this criminal case is the first of its kind and arises from a cyber infrastructure of the first order,” Bharara said. “The defendants were cyber-bandits who hijacked those computers at will, controlling and masquerading as legitimate Internet websites.”
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