Mariposa Botnet Beheaded

northernboy and many other readers sent news of the beheading of the Mariposa botnet with three arrests in Spain. "Defense Intelligence of Ottawa working with ISPs and Spanish authorities have taken down yet another > 12M PC botnet, called Mariposa. The three top-level operators are in custody, but remain anonymous under Spanish law (how quaint: apparently in Spain, the accused have some right to privacy). AP is claiming that the botnet included systems in roughly half of the Fortune 1000 companies, scattered over 190 countries. Interesting details: none of the three principals has a prior criminal record. Although apparently hardworking, they are not uber-hackers, but rather had connections to the Spanish mafia, which apparently helped to equip them. At the time of arrest, they were not showing signs of their significant new income level. From the article: 'Chris Davis, CEO of Ottawa-based Defence Intelligence, said he noticed the infections when they appeared on networks of some of his firm's clients, including pharmaceutical companies and banks. It wasn't until several months later that he realized the infections were part of something much bigger. After seeing that some of the servers used to control computers in the botnet were located in Spain, Davis and researchers from the Georgia Tech Information Security Center joined with software firm Panda Security, which is headquartered in Bilbao, Spain. The investigators caught a few lucky breaks. For one, the suspects used Internet services that wound up cooperating with investigators. That isn't always the case.'"

Comments

apparently in Spain, the accused have privacy

[captainpanic]

From TFA:

how quaint: apparently in Spain, the accused have some right to privacy

That's because in Spain you're not guilty until proven guilty by a court of law. The days of the Spanish inquisition are over.

What country doesn't protect its accused in the 21st century?

Re:apparently in Spain, the accused have privacy

[bhamlin]

The days of the Spanish inquisition are over.

I wasn't expecting that...

Re:apparently in Spain, the accused have privacy

[Culture20]

In the U.S. press, it would be portrayed as:
"Three alleged EVIL HACKERS were arrested today for allegedly HACKING MILLIONS OF COMPUTERS! ZOMG!" And then they'd go to the person's home, and knock on the door. If no one answered, that would be taken as damning evidence by the reporter. If a family member came to the door but said the accused wasn't there, that would be taken as damning evidence by the reporter. If the accused were seen and questioned, but said they couldn't comment on the case, that would be taken as damning evidence by the reporter. If a dog farted, that would be taken as damning evidence by the reporter...
allegedly

Re:Dumb Criminals

[julesh]

If I ever had to 'go rouge' I feel that I could last for years just off of common sense alone by using different public computers in a place with no cameras.

I think I might do the same if I ever go "rouge".

Re:Another...

[entrigant]

What the hell is wrong with you two? The only situation I can find this even remotely acceptable is in response to verified abuse complaints, and even then the appropriate resolution is attempt to contact the customer then disable the entire connection if the customer is unable to resolve the issue. Depending on the severity you don't necessarily need to do it in that order.

I'm leasing an internet connection. You route IP packets destined for my address directly to me, and you route any and every IP packet I send to the appropriate next hop. The end. No if's, and's or but's. No blocked, ports, no traffic shaping, no injected tcp resets... nothing. Just route the damn traffic.