by Ben HalpernA group organized to defraud a massive amount of individuals through a click fraud ring have been charged for their crimes. The group of seven infected more than four million computers on their way to earning over 14 million in revenues through the scheme. By infecting these computers, they were able to remotely affect the destination displayed to the user of the infected computer, leading to millions of ill-advised clicks being placed through pay-per0click ad networks that would pay out in exchange for the clicks generated.
Ad networks run by Google, Yahoo and other web-based firms pay out billions annually to web-publishers and monitor very strictly for fraudulent activity. It requires great sophistication to dupe the system and great sophistication is exactly what this group used in their clickjacking ring. The group used malware known as DSNChanger to redirect web searches to fraudulent IP addresses for over 15,000 domains.
Those charged include six Estonians and one Russian who remains at large. They have been charged by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. About one eighth of the four million computers taken over were located within the United States. Computers of all kinds were attacked, Macs and PCs alike, including even computers belonging to high level government organizations such as NASA. It is thought that NASA may have been the first to discover the scheme. The Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States was finally able to crack down on the operation after an official two year investigation. It is believed also that the FBI may have been aware of the ring up to three years before the investigation began officially.
It is believed that click fraud may account for a significant amount of internet ad clicks. An independent click forensics organization claimed in 2010 that anywhere from 17 to 29 percent of clicks are fraudulent. While ad networks dispute this claim, it is certainly reasonable to believe that the Estonian clickfraud scheme was only one of many schemes initiated to take advantage of this system. As displayed by the lengthy and resource heavy investigation required to take down the Estonian ring, ridding the internet of click fraud is a large and costly undertaking.
Because of the scale of these operations and the resources needed to take them down, they may always exist on some level. It is, however, important that busts like this one occur to deter the practice in general. For the online advertising industry relies on a certain amount of trust that the advertiser will not have a significant amount of revenue lost on account of fraud. This high profile arrest will help insure some of that necessary trust.
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