Interview with a Botmaster

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Saturday February 18, 2006 @12:35AM from the honest-living-made-easy dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Washington Post is running a fascinating feature profiling a couple of botnet operators who make thousands of dollars each month installing adware on machines they infect. This is by far the most detailed examination of this issue I've seen so far -- and includes an interview with the CEO of 180Solutions, as well as interviews with some of the botmasters' victims. From the story: 'Most days, I just sit at home and chat online while I make money,' 0x80 says. 'I get one check like every 15 days in the mail for a few hundred bucks, and a buncha others I get from banks in Canada every 30 days.' He says his work earns him an average of $6,800 per month, although he's made as much as $10,000. Not bad money for a high school dropout.'"

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Re:The irony of it by dnaumov · 2006-02-18 02:34 · Score: -1, Offtopic

"Like most other high school dropouts, he'll wind up spending most of his days in jail."

Excuse me while I call BULLSHIT. I am an european high-school dropout (albeit only 4 courses short from graduating, but either way I have no diploma). I dropped out of school 2 years ago and now I am earning a decent living (~1300 euro/month ain't that bad where I live) doing completely legal activities. I also have multiple friends who have also dropped out of high school to pursue work. Being a high school dropout does not automatically turn one into a criminal.