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PandaLabs Discovers PPC Botnet Fraud
Chris Crum
Staff Writer
2006-05-22
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
A pay-per-click botnet fraud has been discovered by PandaLabs that automatically registers clicks and steals a lot of money.
Panda reports that over 34,000 zombie computers have been compromised by the Clickbot.A Trojan. They are remotely controlled through several web servers allowing the maximum amount of clicks from each IP address to be controlled by the person(s) responsible. David Utter writes:
Panda did not name company whose advertisements are being targeted by the Clickbot.A network. The Trojan activates on infected machines whenever a user launches Internet Explorer.
The financial impact of the fraud scheme could be tremendous. Depending on the number of clicks and cost per click of each ad, the numbers may reach into the billions.
"Renting and selling of botnets has become a genuine business model for cyber-crooks. The scam we have now uncovered exploits infected systems to generate profits through ‘Pay per Click' systems, instead of by installing spyware sending spam," says PandaLabs director Luis Corrons.
"Given the proliferation of these networks, it is highly advisable for users to scan their systems with fully up-to-date anti-malware solutions, as bots like those involved in this case can be perfectly concealed on computers," added Corrons.
The bot problem will likely continue to get worse before it gets better as it is one of the fastest-growing types of security threats on the net.
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Technorati: botnet, pandalabs
About the Author:
Chris Crum is a staff writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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