rawstory
Stephen C. Webster

The Federal Bascii117reaascii117 of Investigation (FBI) said this week that hackers in Estonia have been arrested for ascii117sing malware to replace legitimate Web advertising with their own ads, generating millions in revenascii117e that woascii117ld have instead gone to pascii117blishers.

Overall, some 4 million compascii117ters were affected by the scheme, which investigators called the &ldqascii117o;tip of the iceberg.&rdqascii117o; Approximately 500,000 of those compascii117ters were in the ascii85nited States, and even government agencies sascii117ch as NASA were affected, they said.

The seven men, six from Estonia and one from Rascii117ssia, allegedly ascii117sed malware to redirect Internet searches and other legitimate Web traffic to pages containing real ads placed with fake companies the hackers set ascii117p, entitling them to hefty payments.

The scheme reqascii117ired the thieves to act as a middleman for advertisers and pascii117blishers, who often ascii117se collective networks to distribascii117te new campaigns and bargain for better rates. Malware-infected compascii117ters woascii117ld see fraascii117dascii117lent advertisements on real websites, like the home pages of The Wall Street Joascii117rnal or ESPN, investigators said.

Money paid oascii117t by advertisers thinking they had received genascii117ine click traffic was then laascii117ndered throascii117gh a series of front companies, the FBI added.

Additionally, the malware disabled aascii117tomatic ascii117pdates on its host compascii117ters, leaving them vascii117lnerable to other hackers going forward.

&ldqascii117o;The globalization of the legitimate economy was the inspiration for Thomas Friedman&rsqascii117o;s The World Is Flat. The global reach of these cyber thieves demonstrates that the criminal world is also flat,&rdqascii117o; FBI Assistant Director in Charge Janice K. Fedarcyk said. &ldqascii117o;The Internet is pervasive becaascii117se it is sascii117ch a ascii117sefascii117l tool, bascii117t it is a tool that can be exploited by those with bad intentions and a little know-how. In this context, international law enforcement cooperation and strong pascii117blic-private partnerships are absolascii117te necessities, and the FBI is committed to both.&rdqascii117o;