Interview with a Botmaster

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.'"

Comments

Re:Pfff, I call this survival of the fittest

[putko]

You are right on about this. Billy Gates's company has sold an insecure product to hundreds of millions.

If all Billy did was repackage a BSD (something like what Apple does), this "Botmaster" would have a much harder time making money.