Hackers target PPC....well the BBC calls it per click - sound more like payment per impression to me. The arrest of two men suspected of being behind the Zotob virus has give a rare insight into the lifestyle and motivations of criminal hackers.......... During the chat, Diabl0 revealed that the Mytob worm had a very sneaky purpose. One of its intentions was to lower security settings on Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser so certain pop-up adverts would not be blocked. Diabl0 said he would be paid by the pop-up ad makers for every user hit. Even if the compromised users managed to remove the virus, bragged Diabl0, the settings would likely go unchanged and the stream of unwanted adverts would continue. Every time an ad was sent to a user, Diabl0 would get credited with a click. With Zotob being one of the worst outbreaks of 2005, Diabl0 could have expected a bumper payday. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4205220.stm
That is the problem with the internet explorer. It is a piece of crap and prone to every cyber attack known to man. Hackers are out their and they don't all play nice. My advice to everyone is to stop using Microsoft's products as much as possible. Start using Mozilla Firefox or even swith to a Linux OS instead of windows. That should alleviate many of those problems. transduction,
Sadly it wouldnt, if everyone shifted to FF or Konqueror eventually people would start finding exploits and.. well exploit them... Only way to be sure is to either turn your security up so high you have to enter a password on every page you open or just unplug your phone socket... The problem is never likely to go away...
It amazes me that people would do something like that. If they're smart enough to think up something like that, you'd think they could create comething legal and do just as well... Brad