Fireball (software)
Malware has the ability of running any code on victim computers, such as downloading an arbitrary file and hijacking and manipulating infected user's web traffic in order to generate advertisement revenue. It installs plugins and additional configurations to boost its advertisements, and has potential to turn into a distributor for any additional malware. Malware is spread mostly via bundling. It is installed on a victim's machine alongside a wanted program, often without the user’s consent. Digital marketing agency Rafotech has been indicated as producer of the software. The same company has been accused to host fake search engines, which redirect the queries to yahoo.com or google.com. The fake search engines include tracking pixels used to collect private information from users. Fireball manipulates the infected browsers and turn their default search engines and home pages into the above mentioned fake search engines, which enable the software to spy on users of the infected browsers.
Government hacking
Nowadays, the most well-known and legitimate form of government hacking is the watering hole operation, which the government takes control of a criminal activity site and continues to operate it in order to distribute the virus to computer to access it. The malware can be installed through a link, in which the user clicks, or secretly, through an access to a certain site. The user is not aware of the virtual virus infection on his machine because the malware partially controls it, only to search for identifying information and send it back to the source.