Indictment Says 500,000 Computers Infected

A crew of Internet bandits devised an international scheme to hijack more than 4 million computers worldwide so websurfers visiting Netflix, IRS.gov and other popular websites would be rerouted to sites that generated at least $14 million in fraudulent profits, an indictment unsealed in New York alleged. The indictment says 500,000 computers in the United States were infected, including some used by educational institutions, nonprofits and government agencies like NASA.