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Botnet Brain Pleads Guilty
spge writes "Now that Jeanson James Ancheta has plead guilty to spamming, computer misuse and fraud, it might be worth scanning through the original indictment document, which includes a step-by-step account of how someone goes about setting up an adware business, manages botnets and (thankfully) gets caught." From the BBC article: "'Mr Ancheta was responsible for a particularly insidious string of crimes,' said a spokesman for the US attorney's office in Los Angeles, Thom Mrozek. 'He hijacked somewhere in the area of half a million computer systems. This not only affected computers like the one in your home, but it allowed him and others to orchestrate large-scale attacks.'" We discussed Ancheta's arrest back in October of last year.
"...includes a step-by-step account of how someone goes about setting up an adware business, manages botnets and (thankfully) gets caught..". Free and legal guide for spybot attacks
They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me. -Nathaniel Lee
I am a teenager and I have gotten in trouble with school for "hacking"
I had no malintentions, but I see why they have to do such penalties.
However, the main problem is that the code is not secure, not that I was messing around during a free period and found a way to bypass the "security."
I encourage students and others curious to set their own "box" up and use that to "hack" into.
I do not see hobbyist computer hacking as a REAL threat, because if they can hack into a system, that system is definitely NOT secure from true hackers with illegal, immoral fraud schemes, etc in mind.
Remember, set up your own comp to hack into, you will gain the knowledge from seeing how these things work, and not get in trouble.
Windows? I haven't used that since 1999. Fix the Slashdot Problems
From the link:
"Under a plea agreement, Mr Ancheta is expected to receive from four years to six years in prison when he is sentenced on 1 May, though the deal has to be approved by a judge.
He also agreed to pay $15,000 (£8,800) in restitution to the military facilities affected and forfeit the proceeds of his illicit activities, including more than $60,000 (£35,000) in cash and a 1993 BMW. "
Anyone believe he had only 60 thousand in the bank?
4-6 years, will probably get out in 2.
Just a slap on the hand.
This has been another valuable and informative opinion from:
Catahoula!
The "mainstream media" story on this guy that I read (on cnn.com, probably provided via the Associated Press) prominently mentioned the fact that some of the computers this guy controlled were military computers. The first thing that struck me upon reading that was "they're just trying to make tihs guy seem more sinister than he actually is; his software probably infected those military computers randomly, the same way they infected any others." How much do you wanna bet that all this "ZOMG HE HAXORED TEH MILITARY!11!111 EVIL TERORIST HAXOR!111!111" brouhaha boils down to some lame-brained civvies working menial office or consulting jobs for the military getting their work machines (connected to the commodity Internet) infected?
The story was phrased in such a way that would easily make a technologically naive reader go "Wow, he 'hacked into' the military, so evil", but in reality, it was probably all done by his software.
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
The article about Ancheta's arrest last October says that 3 men were arrested in Holland. I don't really see the connection to this article, was he one of those 3 men arrested last year? if so, what happened to the other 2?