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NZ Teen Arrested as 'Spybot Mastermind'

Posted by Zonk on from the i-was-nowhere-near-this-hard-working-as-a-teen dept.

Josh Fink writes "The Guardian has an interesting piece on 'Akill', a teenager from New Zealand who was the ringleader of a hacking ring. The economic impact of the ring may have totaled £9.7m. 'The teenager was the "head of an international spybot ring that has infiltrated computers around the world with their malicious software', Martin Kleintjes told New Zealand national radio ... The FBI estimates that more than 1m computers have been infected, and puts the combined economic losses at more than $20m (£9.7m).' Eight people have been charged, pleaded guilty or have been convicted since June. The FBI really has been putting a crackdown on botnets / spyware recently."

5 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. OS Problem, not teens by maybenot · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Hoooray for insecure Operating Systems!

  2. Raising my hackles by sm62704 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    ...teenager from New Zealand who was the ringleader of a hacking ring.

    *sigh* "...hacking ring..." (grumble grumble damned kids grumble grumble) I used to ba a gay hacker until they changed the meaning of the words "gay" and "hacker". At least they never used "hacker" in a christmas carol.

    Why, back in my day we used slide rules and pencils. And we LIKED it, damn it! We didn't need no stinkin' POCKET calculators, our pocket calculators took a THREE STORY BUILDING and an army of nerds to run them. And we LIKED it that way, by gum! Kids today (mutter mutter wheeze mutter)

    What was I talking about agai.....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

    -mcgrew

    --
    mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
  3. Re:Stupid teenagers by joaommp · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    "Just look how fast this well-meaning post gets modded down by those imbecile teenage moderators."

    Score: -1, Troll

    Tou were so right on this one...

    --
    Onda Technology Institute
  4. Re:They hate competition by sm62704 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    The FBI are shutting down...

    "FBI" is singular, not plural. There is only one FBI. The FBI is shutting down the botnets, the People in the FBI are shutting down the botnets. Damn it, there was a story about this at slashdot just yesterday. And speaking of yesterday, is this story a dupe?

    You people annoy me sometimes; "The FBI are purging all tha data that is...." AARGH!!!!! I need more coffee...

    --
    mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
  5. Re:Is everyone missing the real point? by jcgf · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    We keep the value of their trust funds secret, but the two are worth over $300k today, and we are budgeting $500k for their education in the future.

    I wish I were one of your children.