05
February
2005
|
13:18 PM
America/Los_Angeles

Clickrisk.com identifies denial of keyword attack from China

Via the Register:


Click fraud consultants Clickrisk.com found one of their clients click-through rates suddenly dropped to zero. Turns out out they were the victims of "keyword hijacking" -- automated searches that cause a company's ads to be displayed like crazy. Here's how it works:



By running searches against particular keywords from compromised hosts, attackers can cause click-through percentage rates to fall through the floor.

This, in turn, causes Google Adwords to automatically disable the affected campaign keywords and prevent ads from being displayed. By disabling campaign keywords using the technique, cybercrimals could give their preferred parties higher ad positions at reduced costs, according to click fraud prevention specialists Clickrisk."


Link: Botnets strangle Google Adwords campaigns | The Register


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