Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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."

8 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Important to point out... by kaos07 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think it's important to point out that the kid 'Akill' was released without charge and that he didn't make any money out of the operation. Some sources are reporting that the group "raked in" $20 million, whereas that figure comes from estimates of "economic losses" so are probably inflated or meaningless depending on where the sources come from.

    1. Re:Important to point out... by fireboy1919 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      that figure comes from estimates of "economic losses" so are probably inflated or meaningless depending on where the sources come from.

      What would be realistic? Lets say that he stole the use of 100,000 computers in his botnet. At 2Mil, each computer would have $20 in economic losses.

      That doesn't seem at all unrealistic. If it costs $20 of your time (i.e., if it takes an hour to clean and you make $20 an hour, or something to that effect), then it's $20 in economic loss. If the resulting slowdown costs $20 of your productive time, same thing.

      Sure, some people don't lose that much by not being productive, but some lose a lot more. $20 average sounds entirely reasonable - probably a little low, actually. They probably didn't infect that many machines.

      Keep in mind that I'm not even bringing up what is done with those computers - I'm just talking about losses caused by putting the spyware on machines, and haven't begun to talk about what is done with it.
      If bad things were done with things, it would certainly drive the average cost per infection up a lot, which would make it easy to cause that much damage while infecting far fewer machines.

      Point is that this isn't like assuming that every download=a sale lost. It isn't outside the realm of possibility at all.

      --
      Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
  2. Doesn't sound right to me by Silver+Sloth · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The teenager cannot be named for legal reasons, but uses the online identity "Akill". He was later released without charge, but police said they expected to interview him again. and then

    The teenager was the "head of an international spybot ring that has infiltrated computers around the world with their malicious software", Kleintjes told New Zealand national radio. and then

    Kleintjes said the teenager had written software that evaded normal computer spyware systems, then sold his skills to hackers. "He is very bright and very skilled in what he's doing," Kleintjes said. "He hires his services out to others." It looks to me like some script kiddie is being puffed up as 'Head of an internationa spybot ring'. I'm not saying he's innocent but there's a lot of spin in this.
    --
    init 11 - for when you need that edge.
  3. Cut the head off? by Caption+Wierd · · Score: 4, Funny

    When the "mastermind" is arrested, does a botnet die or continue some sort of pointless frankenstenian existence?

  4. Link to article about US student arrested by DarthTeufel · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_stories/11910042.html A Penn student who was arrested in connection with AKILL

  5. and then by darthflo · · Score: 4, Funny
    and then

    The teenager is said to have infiltrated top secret government networks throughout the universe. "He created both Linux and Windows in the lunch breaks of his freshman year in college and plans to take over control of the world after finishing his PhD next year", Kleintjes said.
    I, for one, ph34r our new NZ script kiddie overlords.
  6. Re:They hate competition by Heian-794 · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

    Hopefully you import your coffee from Colombia or somewhere other than the UK where plural verbs are used routinely for organizations in this sense. 'Manchester United are wankers' and the like. The closest thing I can think of in the US is sports teams with those silly-sounding singular mass-noun nicknames like the Tampa Bay Lightning. "The Utah Jazz haven't been the same without Karl Malone"; "The Minnesota Wild are winning again", etc.

    [/multinational inclusivist grammar nazi]

  7. Re:Yoohoo!!! by m4ximusprim3 · · Score: 5, Funny

    so you're saying we should kill him and shove his body into the tubes?