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Web Ads Present New Front In Hacker Wars

The rise of "pay-per-click" online advertising, celebrated for turning Google and Yahoo into enormous businesses, is proving a boon for cyberthieves, reports The Wall Street Journal. Hackers are using increasingly sophisticated computer programs to automate phony clicks on Internet ads and then hide the click fraud from detection. This threat, although still small, poses a challenge for Google, Yahoo, and other Internet companies that sell pay-per-click ads and need to assure advertisers that they are paying for legitimate clicks from potential customers. One catalyst has been the explosion of "bots"--malicious software that hackers sneak onto thousands of home computers and network together into huge "botnets." The click-fraud programs can be changed quickly, making it easier for them to evade security software and to be customized for different fraud schemes.

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