Porn Hijack Program Now Hits 2,000 Computers: Report

Security experts now estimate that almost two thousand Windows-based personal computers have been hijacked by a program turning those computers into unwitting porn hosts, Reuters reported July 11. 

Network Associates told the news wire service that the Trojan horse program is rated low-risk because of the very low volume of affected computers and because it doesn't seem to harm those computers or obstruct their operations. Reuters said the Trojan has been nicknamed "Migmaf," or "migrant Mafia," turning the affected computer into a proxy server and picking up porn pages and ads from unknown servers and passing them to other computers by e-mail or Web browsers. 

And the owners of those affected computers may never realize they've been turned into proxy porn servers for long periods of time. The proxy character also lets the actual porn servers hide their locations, according to Boston-based security consultant Richard Smith. 

The New York Times previously reported the Trojan as having affected about a thousand personal computers, though the Trojan wasn't affecting Macintosh computers or those using Unix or Unix-derived platforms.

Smith also told Reuters the Trojan may have originated in Russia because some of the e-mail addresses used traced back to Russian servers, or because some of the domain names included some Russian-language references.