[Science] How hackers use tricks to make money from your clicks – AI

Click tricks appear on hundreds of websitesDonna Lu By Donna LuIn the attention economy of the internet, clicks are a hot commodity. They’re used to drive engagement in the form of likes and viewer numbers, but now online attackers are also tricking unsuspecting internet users into clicking for their profit. Wei Meng at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and colleagues found that third-party programs are secretly changing hyperlinks and inserting URLs into seemingly ordinary websites, leading to click-driven profit and malware that could put users’ computers at risk. The scam works like this. A common form …