NEW YORK a— A man has been brought to New York from Estonia to face charges he steered millions of computers worldwide toward certain websites and advertisements.
Anton Ivanov was extradited Thursday to face an indictment returned in November. It accuses him of conspiring with at least six others to digitally hijack Internet searches and re-route computers to specific websites.
Prosecutors say Ivanov and others infected more than four million computers in over 100 countries. The government says they received millions of dollars when websites and their advertisements were visited by users of infected computers. Prosecutors say the malware prevented the installation of anti-virus software and operating system updates on infected computers.
He was held after pleading not guilty in federal court in Manhattan. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a message.