----- Original Message -----
From: "Parker" <parker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Internet News" <inter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, November 04, 2005 2:46 PM
Subject: Internet and Technology News U.S. Arrests 20 Year Old Bott Master
By Dan Whitcomb Thu Nov 3, 6:53 PM ET LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A 20-year-old
man accused
of using thousands of hijacked computers, or "bot nets," to damage systems
and send
massive amounts of spam across the Internet was arrested on Thursday in what
authorities
called the first such prosecution of its kind.
Jeanson James Ancheta, who prosecutors say was a well-known member of the
"Botmaster
Underground" -- or the secret network of computer hackers skilled at bot
attacks
-- was taken into custody after being lured to offices in Los Angeles, said
U.S.
Attorney's spokesman Thom Mrozek.
A bot is a program that surreptitiously installs itself on a computer and
allows
the hacker to control the computer. A bot net is a network of such robot
computers,
which can harness their collective power to do considerable damage or send
out huge
quantities of spam.
Mrozek said the prosecution was unique because, unlike in previous cases,
Ancheta
was accused of profiting from his attacks -- by selling access to his "bot
nets"
to other hackers and planting adware -- software that causes ads to pop
up -- into
infected computers.
"Normally what we see in these cases, where people set up these bot systems
to do,
say, denial of service attacks, they are not doing it for profit, they are
doing
it for bragging rights," he said. "This is the first case in the nation that
we're
aware of where the guy was using various bot nets in order to make money for
himself."
Ancheta has been indicted on a 17-count federal indictment that charges him
with
conspiracy, attempted transmission of code to a protected computer,
transmission
of code to a government computer, accessing a protected computer to commit
fraud
and money laundering.
Ancheta, who was expected to make an initial court appearance late on
Thursday or
Friday, faces a maximum term of 50 years in prison if convicted on all
counts, though
federal sentencing guidelines typically call for lesser penalties.
Prosecutors did not name the companies that they said paid Ancheta and said
the firms
did not know any laws were broken.
Mrozek said Ancheta, who lives in the Los Angeles suburb of Downey, was
thought to
have made nearly $60,000 from the planted adware, using the money to pay for
servers
to carry out additional attacks, computer equipment and a BMW.
He said Ancheta was taken into custody after FBI agents called him into
their offices
to pick up computer equipment that had been seized in an earlier raid.
Among the computers he attacked, Mrozek said, were some at the Weapons
Division of
the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, California and at the U.S.
.
We supply this information as a service and do not endorse it or recommend any action being taken based upon it. Any decisions taken, by the subscriber, are entirely your own responsibility. This is an announce only list. All replies will go only to the list moderator. To unsubscribe from this list, press Enter on the link below. A pre-addressed message will pop up, simply send it. mailto:inter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe If you wish to recommend this list to a friend, send the following link to them. mailto:inter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=subscribe We hope that you're enjoying this list. www.accessible-devices.com
__________ NOD32 1.1275 (20051103) Information __________
This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. http://www.eset.com
