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DDOS Mafia On The Loose
TivoLee writes "If you were worried that courts have been cracking down too much on Internet miscreants lately, think again. Sure, virus writers and spammers have been hit with some tough sentences in recent months. But what about this: the U.S. govt. has dropped charges against a group of four guys known as the DDOS Mafia. Two of the men admitted to releasing viruses so they could create botnets to launch DDOS attacks for hire. Their boss is accused of causing $2Mil in damage to victim sites. Yet prosecutors are dropping charges, so they can get the criminals to snitch on other criminals. Oi vey."
Release the little fish so you can get the big one. You can't have everything you know. If you can do a better job, then please do so.
Why is this bad? It's worked well against organized crime, why not try it against organized cyber-crime?
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This is a common prosecutorial practice... whats the big deal?
Here's a hint. They do the same thing for murderers, drug trafficants, gang members. Prosecuting them will take 4 places in jail. Getting them to cooperate will help stop others, and they probably have to engage themselve not to continue doing viruses / ddos. Everyone wins. Honestly, if they do it with murderers, is it THAT surprising that they do the same thing with script kiddies?
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In other words, normal lawyer tactics. Nothing to see here.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
Their boss is accused of causing $2Mil in damage to victim sites.
...but I assume the victims can still file a civil lawsuit for damages? So it's not exactly like walking away as a free man.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
For the gov't to use them, they must be trustable. It also sets a bad precedent for the gov't to hire criminals for their crimes.
So they admit the did these DDOS's, cut a deal to finger Mr Big in return for immunity from prosecution.
If your company were one of the ones damaged by their admitted DDOS, can you sue them for damages?
This is a special case of a more general question: If a person has been accused of a crime, and been processed by the justice system, can the victims of the crime also sue for reparation? (Well, in one far-too-celebrated case (OJ) they did.)
I can see various arguments why it would be a good or bad thing to allow this, various possible compromises, references to weregilds etc., but I'm supposed to be working, not writing an essay, so I'll quit here.
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
I guess it depends on what kind of criminals they would be snitching on. Dropping charges of a little ping bombing in order to track down a serial killer would be a fair trade. "I know someone who did worse, but I won't talk until you drop the charges," seems to be the universal way to get away with anything anymore.
With that said, it would have to be a pretty major thing these kids would be snitching on to get away with what they did. Maybe two of the kids testifying against the rest so the DAs can know that someone got punished for the crime. That's how the legal system works anymore: As long as someone takes the fall and the victim is satisfied, then it doesn't matter if some or all of the criminals got off.
Let's fake an answer for the curious; let's fake it all for the fame.
You are suggesting correlation without thinking about the possible causation. :P.
We don't read the articles Because we've already slashdotted the servers and therefore can't. Sometimes I don't even bother with the links cause I figure the server's already down.
Sometimes the server goes down with the <SYN> flood before anyone gets a page back
09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
Of course some would like the death sentence as a more effective deterrent/barganing power, but I'll not get into that debate.
AC comments get piped to
Don't doubt that they'll keep an eye on these guys. They might agree to drop charges to nail a bigger fish, but that doesn't mean that they can't nail these guys again in the future for another transgression.
I think it's ironic how little girls sharing mp3s are being subpoenaed and charged for sharing a few Disney mp3s, when massive DDOS attacks are doing costly amounts of damage only to have the case dropped in court.