"Hijacking" a new trend?

[smorg]

Someone just sent me this link. Has anyone heard about this before?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...0/BU156207.DTL

[smorg]

Someone just sent me this link. Has anyone heard about this before?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...0/BU156207.DTL

[Judi A]

Hi Smorg,
I forwarded the link to my son. He said the in order for the ads to change a person has to download the software. I can't imagine why anyone would want to do that, but hey I guess there is a possiblilty there are some people who like banner ads!! Can that be????

[Wolfgang]

Judi,

from what I read, this software is installed as a 'trojan'.
If you install "Kazaa Media Desktop" (a Napster-clone), it will install this questionable "feature" to your browser as well.

I don't use this kind of software, so I don't know if this particular feature is 'uncheckable' at installation.
Anyway, less experienced users normally use the "Typical" setting where it might be enabled.

We should read it again, but that's the way I understood it.

And from then on, the program will underline certain words in yellow. If you click on them, you are brought to a page that should be in context (??) with this word.
And if you don't know, that you installed this trojan, you might as well think that the owner/creator of this page set the link ...

I hope, somebody wins a lawsuit against them before this thing can spread too much ...

Wolfgang

[smorg]

The Admin at Graphics Unleashed said it was installed as a trojan through another program on his computer, but didn't say what program it was. What upsets the designers (who have a right to be upset) is that they have no indication that their ads are being "hijacked," just a drop in revenue.

This is one of the more "screwy" kinds of hacking I've heard of, because that's what it amounts to, hacking somebody else's web site.

How long do you think it will be before someone writes an "antidote?"