By Rob Lever
Washington - More than 2 000 Internet users have had their computers hijacked and redirected to pornographic websites in a scheme that has security experts perplexed.
Experts believe they have traced the attack to Russian operatives of other Internet scams and suspect it is part of a money-making scam but remain baffled about the technique used to infiltrate PCs.
Richard Smith, a Massachusetts-based security consultant who has tabulated the number of infected machines, said the perpetrators of the attack appear to be from the same location as those responsible for a recent scheme involving the Paypal Internet payment system.
'This the first time someone has tried to make money off of hacking a home computer' Smith said this attack, known as a Trojan, seems to be a new twist that blends hacker attacks and spam and that it is a new type of money-making scheme.
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"In terms of home computers, this is one of the first times someone has tried to make money off of hacking a home computer," Smith said.
"It is not known how the Trojan gets installed on people's computers. My theory is that the Sobig.e virus might be involved but the evidence is not strong at the moment."
Joe Stewart, a specialist at the Internet security firm LURHQ, was among the first to analyse the new Trojan and trace its likely origins to Russia.
The hackers may get revenue for every time a porn page pops up, similar to the commissions from advertising "clicks," and may get additional money by sending out spam from the infected computers.
'Migmaf is disturbing because it represents a new escalation in malware weaponry' Stewart dubbed the trojan "migmaf", short for "migrating mafia", and noted that the method of attack - shifting from one computer to another every 10 minutes - makes it harder to track.
"Migmaf is particularly disturbing because it represents a new escalation in malware weaponry," said Jim Kollegger, president of BBX Technologies, a security firm.
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