Botnets Contribution to Click Fraud Scams Growing

According to a new study by 'Click Forensics,' click fraud traffic from botnets has risen yet again; this quarter it is estimated at 42.6% of fraudulent traffic, as per the news by BIZ REPORT on October 22, 2009. The rise is almost two fold what it was in 2007, and up from 27.5% in the same quarter last year (2008).

Security experts have claimed that click fraud is a scheme in which a computer program, person or automated script imitates an authentic user who clicks on online advertisement for gaining profit from a pay-per-click arrangement.

However, Click Forensics has not calculated how much the click fraud costs to publishers and advertisers, but it is certainly a major problem. In the fourth quarter of 2009, Click Forensics estimates the total click fraud rate at around 14.1%, as per the news by PCW BUSINESS CENTER on October 22, 2009. The statistic comes from an observation of traffic on 300 ad networks.

In addition, security experts state that one of the changes they have noticed is how botnets are being used for not only phishing but they have also become more refined (sophisticated) in committing click fraud.

Earlier, criminals took control of systems and used them automatically click on ads to generate money for the botnet. In the case of Bahama botnet, the program is also taking control of a user's natural searches for making them appear authentic search queries. Security experts inform that this is harder to discover as the search is legitimate and not a robotic click.

Paul Pellman, CEO of Click Forensics, said - botnets triggering click fraud and other scams are increasing in number and sophistication. He adds that ad providers and advertisers should be careful about such activities because they have entered competitive search marketing holiday season, as per the news by BIZ REPORT on October 22, 2009.

Ultimately, security experts said - botnets are an authoritative device for hackers. They can be used to circulate spam, extract data and carry out distributed denial-of-service attack against websites. Moreover, the harmful software attacking systems are part of botnets and endlessly being modified for other harmful means.

Related article: Botnet Misuses Google Analytics

» SPAMfighter News - 11/4/2009