A Brief History of Cybercrime and Cyberwarfare - The Technical and Social History of Software Engineering - page 389

It is apparent that much greater use of encryption for confidential government
data is likely to occur in the future. This may also be true for proprietary corporate
data such as client addresses, credit card numbers, and social security numbers.
Browser Hijacking
Browser hijackers are annoying and are semilegal malware packages that divert
web browsers from their intended destinations and force them to alternate destin-
ations. All of the well-known browsers, such as Bing, Chrome, Firefox, Internet
Explorer, and others, are affected. Some of the current browser hijackers include
Abnow, CoolWebSearch, MySearch, search.conduit, and search-daily.
As with other forms of malware, browser hijackers attempt to make their pack-
age resistant to removal by antivirus and antispyware tools. If you have a com-
puter that is infected by one or more browser hijackers, you need to do a search
for effective solutions by contacting your antivirus or antispyware vendors.
The main purpose of browser hijackers is to divert web searches to alternate
sites that have ads, pornography, or some other topic different from the one the
user wanted. A common form of browser hijacking starts with some kind of mes-
sage such as “WARNING YOUR COMPUTER IS INFECTED . . . .” If you click
on this, your browser is diverted to a company that wants money to fix your com-
puter, and it will not remove the browser hijacker unless paid.
Some browser hijackers rent their tools to others who supply their own destin-
ation websites. Sometimes browser hijackers are included in commercial software
on disks or downloaded. The agreements that users have to check when installing
such software may list specific spyware or browser hijackers.
Because some web advertising pays based on the number of hits that reach
a specific website, a very common reason for browser hijacking is to artificially
force hits to a specific website so that the advertiser has to pay higher fees.
Browser hijacking is not necessarily illegal. If it is used without the knowledge
and consent of a computer user, it is probably illegal. If it is included in a license
and the user agrees to it, then it is probably not illegal. Because most users don't
read the full text of these licenses, vendors can stuff in alarming amounts of harm-
ful clauses, including permission to download browser hijacking tools.
Browser hijacking often shows up in court. A common claim by people who are
charged with downloading illegal pornography is that it was the result of browser
hijacking. These cases are complex and difficult to prove one way or the other.
However, the courts do not seem to accept this line of defense very often.