US authorities on Wednesday charged seven people living in Estonia and Russia with using malicious software to hijack millions of computers world-wide to redirect Internet searches toward online ads. Starting in 2007, the suspects created fake companies that contracted with legitimate advertiser websites to drive Internet traffic toward their Internet pages, according to a Manhattan federal court indictment.
About 4 million computers in 100 countries including the United States were infected with malicious software designed by the defendants that would redirect an Internet user's browser toward the online advertisements, the indictment said. The defendants were paid about $14 million by advertisers based on the amount of "clicks" the ad pages would receive, the indictment said. Some of the infected computers belonged to NASA, the US space agency, it said. The accused face 27 charges including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and computer intrusion, wire fraud and committing unlawful transactions.
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