Click fraud botnet unpicked2010-08-11 09:34 by DanielaTags: Botnet, security
Cybercrooks use of botnets to make money by sending spam or launching denial of service attacks has become a well-understood business model. But the controllers of networks of compromised PCs have other ways of turning an illicit profit, including using rogue traffic brokers to defraud reputable brands. Trend Micro's write-up of a click fraud scam sheds light onto this less well-known but highly lucrative cyberscam. Trend Micro has been on the trail of one particular gang of click fraud crooks for over 18 months. The gang is originally from Estonia, although there are loose connections with the UK, which hosts a shell company for a click broker selling web traffic that plays an important role in the complex scam. David Sancho, a security researcher at Trend Micro's Labs, explained that the scam uses short-lived bots to redirect web traffic from compromised machines. Surfers seeking to visit Yahoo, for example, might be redirected via a third-party service before arriving at their destination, earning an unscrupulous broker a few cents in the process. In other cases surfers visiting the New York Times, for example, may be served ads from an ad-broker other than the licensed agent, Double Click. Read more -here-
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