Google investigates a Clickbot, And Discusses The Cost Of Click Fraud

The Clickbot.A botnet described in the paper consisted of 100,000 machines when analyzed in June 2006, and Google's potential click fraud cost was put at approximately $50,000 per day.

Over the past year, Google has been warned that click fraud represents a serious threat to its business. Its executives have repeatedly said the problem is under control and not significant for Google. Its engineers have released internal statistics, previously withheld, in support of that contention and published blog posts attacking the statistics and credibility of click fraud auditing companies. They have also added click fraud reporting tools to Google's AdWords advertising service.

Google on Tuesday published ""The Anatomy of Clickbot.A"" an analysis of malicious software used to commit click fraud. Despite Google CEO Eric Schmidt's past insistence that click fraud is "immaterial," the paper argues that more needs to be done to protect search engines and computers in general against botnet attacks.

The particular Clickbot.A botnet described in the paper consisted of 100,000 machines when analyzed in June 2006. The Clickbot.A software was designed to conduct "a low-noise click fraud attack against syndicated search engines." The authors of the paper, Neil Daswani and Michael Stoppelman, put Google's potential click fraud cost at approximately $50,000.

If that's a possible daily loss, costing some $18 million annually, it's hardly a significant figure for a company with Google's revenue.

But even if click fraud is less profitable than electronic bank robbery, it probably carries a much lower risk of investigation and imprisonment.

Source: Online News