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Creators of Massive Botnet Arrested

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the well-maybe-don't-do-that dept.

DigitumDei writes "Dutch police has nabbed 3 men (aged 19,22, & 27) who alledgedly used the toxbot trojan to create a botnet of over 100000 machines. The trio conducted a DDOS attack against an unnamed US company in an extortion attempt, as well as using phishing tactics to hijack PayPal and eBay accounts. From the article: 'Police seized computers, cash, a sports car, and bank accounts at the three men's residences, and additional arrests are expected. The three were to be taken before a magistrate in Breda, a city approximately 25 miles south of Rotterdam, on Friday. The botnet was dismantled, prosecutors said, with help from the Dutch National High Tech Crime Center; GOVCERT.NL, the Netherlands' Computer Emergency Response Team; and several Internet service providers, including the Amsterdam-based XS4ALL.'"

23 of 243 comments (clear)

  1. Extortion? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    Dat's a nice website ya got dere. SHAME if sumtin happened to it.

    /Godfather music in background

    1. Re:Extortion? by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 1, Funny

      Sad but true...DDoS extortion is actually pretty common. Not really much other use for a botnet that big...'cept maybe to crunch an unholy large number of SETI packets.

      Maybe if they put all those computers together to type up story submissions, occasionally I wouldn't have to see one with a glaring gramatical error in the first three words.

      --
      ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
  2. a botnet of over 100000 machines by wiredog · · Score: 4, Funny

    I hereby declare a new metric for measuring the size of botnets: The MegaBot. 1 MegaBot==10E6 Bots.

    --

    Best Slashdot Co
    1. Re:a botnet of over 100000 machines by mustafap · · Score: 5, Funny

      >1 MegaBot==10E6 Bots.

      No no no no no. How many times to we have to tell you?

      1MegaBot == 1024*1024 bots.

      Dammed marketing bots.

      --
      Open Source Drum Kit, LPLC deve board - mjhdesigns.com
    2. Re:a botnet of over 100000 machines by Jugalator · · Score: 5, Funny
      No no no no no. How many times to we have to tell you?
      1MegaBot == 1024*1024 bots.

      No!! You're talking about a MebiBot!

      // Random Mebi Enforcement Zealot

      --
      Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
  3. Wow. by Black+Parrot · · Score: 5, Funny

    A city-wide Thieves Guild is understandable, but a National Crime Center is just going too far.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  4. mmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    the creators of the slashdot network are still at large tho :)

  5. About time by dow · · Score: 5, Funny

    I get so many of these zombie machines trying things everyday and never hear about anyone getting caught. Hope they get sentenced to ten years of Windows XP.

    1. Re:About time by mindaktiviti · · Score: 4, Funny

      Because we all know that 10 years of WinME would result in cruel and unusual punishment, even for them.

    2. Re:About time by Mysticalfruit · · Score: 1, Funny

      Actually, that might constitue a war crime.

      --
      Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
  6. Why? by AAeyers · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...who alledgedly used the toxbot trojan to create a botnet of over 100000 machines.

    It seems a little harsh to get arrested for only infecting 32 machines.....

    --
    "For Great Justice."
    1. Re:Why? by Filip22012005 · · Score: 5, Funny

      You're thinking of a bitnet.

      Related concepts: the batnet and the butnet.

      And then, there's also the botnut (three of which got arrested), the bitnut (such as yourself), the butnut (erm...), the botknit (a network of 100000 computers strung together by my grandma), the botNAT, and the bitenight (Buffy the movie).

      --
      When the policeman of the tie, rule you violate, hello punishment of the kitty?
    2. Re:Why? by flosofl · · Score: 2, Funny

      ...who alledgedly used the toxbot trojan to create a botnet of over 100000 machines.

      It seems a little harsh to get arrested for only infecting 32 machines.....

      Ha!

      Judging from the replies, there's only 10 types of people who understood the post.

      Those who got the joke and those who didn't.*

      *-Shamelessly ripped off a ThinkGeek T-Shirt...

      --
      "This calls for a very special blend of psychology and extreme violence" - Vyvyan "The Young Ones"
  7. Bank accounts! by Kagura · · Score: 1, Funny

    and bank accounts at the three men's residences

    Ahaha, who keeps bank accounts at their residence, of all places?!

  8. Re:What a great idea... by DingerX · · Score: 1, Funny

    Just the net was dismantled. The actual bots are now bot-Ronin, who will prove their loyalty by DDoSing the appropriate law enforcement websites into oblivion, before wiping their BIOS en masse.

  9. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  10. Environmental problem by rbanffy · · Score: 2, Funny

    It seems to me that unpatched Windows boxes are becoming an environmental problem ;-)

    --
    http://www.dieblinkenlights.com
  11. Re:And, eventually, they got caught... by ray-auch · · Score: 1, Funny

    you don't need the real details for the movie - what kind of cash / computer / car / house is determined by the product placement contracts.

  12. Re:Good, but... by crawling_chaos · · Score: 1, Funny
    Very few cops are shot by 8-year-olds who can't find their mommy.

    Ah, I see you have never visited Detroit.

    --
    You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are.
    -- Colonel Adolphus Busch
  13. Re:25 miles south of Rotterdam? by Koredor · · Score: 3, Funny

    Does this info really help? How many Americans know Rotterdam?

    Rotterdamn....that sounds vaguely familar.. Oh yeah now I remember it was one of my options for music in Ridge Racer for Play Station.

    As to not be marked off-topic, the question really becomes not what to do with those behind the botnet, but what to do with the botnet itself. One could patch the entire network via the use of the very trojan that created it (which we know is illegal), but I think this might be a good change to get some extra cycles for SETI. I can just see Team Dutch National High Tech Crime Center moving up the rankings now.

  14. Re:glaring gramatical error by DigitumDei · · Score: 2, Funny

    Unfortunately I am not.

    Blushing profusly right now; amazing how previewing twice just meant I read "has" as "have" in my mind twice.

    --
    East Coast Brewers
  15. Re:25 miles south of Rotterdam? by Jardine · · Score: 2, Funny

    interesting stats there. [ 144 thousand times * holland = canada ]. hello dont believe this.

    It's more like 240 * Holland = Canada.

  16. Re:Good, but... by lawpoop · · Score: 2, Funny

    Do the Dutch really have a Justice system based on gobbledegook?

    --
    Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
    -- Pablo Picasso