Profit
Many people believe that browser hijackers were designed for simple annoyance. Most hijackers redirect a page to force hits to their websites which contain ads. This then drives up the advertising cost for that website, thus profiting the site's webmaster.
Malware and many trojans have many marketing uses. This malicious software can hijack your browser even adding exceptions to your browsers security settings and pop up blockers. Most malware software is picked up with something so simple as opening an email or clicking a link.
However in some cases the hijack is being done without the knowledge of the website. The webmaster sets up an account on an advertising platform (where they pay for traffic to be directed to their site via legitimate means—just like Google adWords) and a hijacker starts forcing traffic to that page so the website owners have to pay money each time a user arrives at the page. In this case the hijacker is making money, however the website the user is being forced toward is actually losing a lot of money.
Read more about this topic: Browser Hijacker
Famous quotes containing the word profit:
“We gave ‘em wings to fly and they rained death on us. We gave ‘em a voice to be heard around the world and they preach hatred to poison the minds of nations. Even the medicine we gave them to ease their pain is turned into a vice to enslave half mankind for the profit of a few. Ah, Janet, dear, don’t you see? Every gift that science has given them has been twisted into a thing of hate and greed.”
—Karl Brown (1897–1990)
“... when you make it a moral necessity for the young to dabble in all the subjects that the books on the top shelf are written about, you kill two very large birds with one stone: you satisfy precious curiosities, and you make them believe that they know as much about life as people who really know something. If college boys are solemnly advised to listen to lectures on prostitution, they will listen; and who is to blame if some time, in a less moral moment, they profit by their information?”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)
“You taught me language, and my profit on’t
Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you
For learning me your language!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)