What is a web hijack ?
It's been happening in
very large numbers (hundreds of millions) over the last 4 or 5 years. You visit a website, and it throws a file at you. Sometimes it tells you that you need a new ActiveX control to view a page, sometimes it tells you that you need a new video CODEC to view an image. If you're a REAL noob and have IE set to 'Enable Install On Demand' then you're probably already fucked, and not in a
good way. The file they download quietly installs a backdoor trojan that gives someone ELSE total control over your computer. They can read everything on your computer just as if they were sitting in front of it: passwords, files, etc. I've personally removed that kind of crap from over 100 computers of friends and co-workers, and helped another 400 or 500 people do it themselves. Milder versions of web hijacks just send all of your clicks to a web robot that feeds 'targeted ads' at you (spyware or malware).
The bad part is, Google is not policing their 'search hits' like they used to. It's VERY EASY to hit a site that has trojans on it with a Google search. And for a couple of years Yahoo! was owned by Northern Technologies, which also owned a company that produced the GATOR and PRECISION TIME spyware. Yahoo! was responsible for over 60% of the income to Gator (they fed the links to people doing a search). Due to all of the bad press, Yahoo! has since stopped that.
I'll return the favor, Emily!
Would you like some '
special sauce' with that?