A group of cyber hackers from Eastern Europe calling themselves Rove have hijacked computer totaling approximately four million.  These hijacked computers can be found in over one hundred countries.  Approximately a half million of those computers are in the United States.  The group of cyber thieves made off with fourteen million dollars in illegal income before the cyber hackers was caught. 

In this sophisticated and massive scheme, the malware that was allegedly used to infect computers in the government of the United States also included NASA.  Websites of major institutions were also targeted.  Some of these websites included the IRS, iTunes, and Netflix.  When these websites were hijacked, users trying to access these sites were force to entirely different websites. 

The hackers that were accused of this cyber crime included a Russian national and six Estonian nationals.  They pulled off the hijacking by rerouting traffic on the internet illegally on the computers that were infected so they could gain profits from advertisement deals on the internet for the past four years.  The international cyber ring was busted by the FBI after a investigation of two years. 

The alleged hackers worked out of their home countries but they also used entities all over the world and in the United States.  They also used an Estonia based software company called Rove Digital to carry out the hijacking.  Apparently the cyber crime got their name from this software company.

They managed to carry out the hijacking by entering into a deal with different internet advertisers.  They would get money for generating traffic to particular advertisements or websites.  They could have gotten money legally by doing it this way but instead the cyber group used malware to make the infected computers visit these advertisements or websites unwillingly.  Doing it illegally they pumped up the number of clicks and received profits of fourteen million dollars illegally. 

The users were prevented by the malware from putting anti-virus software on their computers.  This anti-virus software may have been able to prevent the computer from being infected.  The Estonian nationals have been arrested on the charges of cyber crime but the Russian national is still at large.  With a flip of the switch, the criminal enterprise was dismantled. 

The seven cyber criminals are being charged with five counts of wire fraud and computer intrusion.  These crimes can carry a prison sentence between five and thirty years.  One of the Estonians is also being charged with twenty-two counts of money laundering.

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