Making a Million, Part Two—The Scale of the Threat

[Peaches]

Making a Million, Part Two—The Scale of the Threat

This is the second part of a two-part series on browser hijacking. The first part may be found .

Browser hijacker Trojans refer to a family of malware that redirects their victims away from the sites they want to visit. In particular, search engine results are often hijacked by this type of malware. A search on popular search engines like Google, Yahoo!, or Bing still works as usual. However, once victims click a search result or a sponsored link, they are instead directed to a foreign site so the hijacker can monetize their clicks.

Browser hijackers are popular because search result clicks convert well. It is a lucrative and an easy way to capitalize on the success of legitimate search engines. With a network of 150,000 bots, gangs can make several millions of U.S. dollars every year from hijacking search results alone. The price per stolen click strongly depends on the keywords used. We have seen an average of US$0.01–0.02 per click although this rises to more than US$2 dollars for words or phrases like “home-based business opportunities” or “loans.” For the earnings of a hijacking botnet that has hijacked more than 1 million clicks in one day—July 20, 2010

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