Posted on 05/09/2006 12:39:41 PM PDT by BenLurkin
LOS ANGELES - A 21-year-old computer whiz was sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison for taking control of 400,000 Internet-connected computers and renting access to them to spammers and fellow hackers.
Among the machines authorities said Jeanson James Ancheta infected in 2004 and 2005 were those at the China Lake Naval Air Facility and the Defense Information System Agency headquartered in Falls Church, Va.
"Your worst enemy is your own intellectual arrogance that somehow the world cannot touch you on this," U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner told Ancheta in sentencing him Monday to 57 months in prison.
Ancheta, of Downey, Calif., pleaded guilty in January to four felony charges.
Authorities said he received more than $107,000 for downloading adware — software that can track a user's Internet browsing habits and deliver pop-up ads — onto infected computers and selling access to hackers and spammers.
A Web site he maintained included a schedule of prices and guidelines for the technology necessary to bring down a particular type of Web site.
Prosecutors said the case was among the first to target profits derived from use of "botnets," large numbers of computers that hackers commandeer through software and then turn into a "zombie" network that can be controlled by outsiders.
The computers' owners are typically unaware that parasitic programs have been installed on their machines that allow outsiders to operate them
Somehow I get the feeling that he is going to get "touched" while in prison.
DOD info should be a bit more secure than this
57 months seems light actually, especially so when one considers the damage that he could have done.
Someone is going to enjoy their new prison bitch.
I work as the IBM delivery leader for network security and threat mitigation...... there are a WHOLE LOT of systems that should be better protected than this, but are not.
Good. Hackers are criminals. Same as any other crime.
Death to SPAMMERS...
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yeah ,it's common. the DOD has the manpower, and money to prevent most of this though. my (our) tax dollars at work
Let me assure you, although you may (or maybe not) wish I am wrong, there is very little rape that goes on in minimum security prisons. Most likely, a young computer hacker will serve his time in a minimum security facility.
Good, I hope he serves every single day. I despise these people.
Some hackers commit crimes, they are criminals.
Most hackers don't commit crimes.
>>A 21-year-old computer whiz was sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison
You've Got Jail!
Ancheta: Soon to become a node of BeeyotchNet.
Personally, I hate pop ups more, especially those flasing, moving ones that you can't simply "X" out of also.
Really obnoxious. Spam I can mark as junk and have it automatically go to the bulk file and automatically delete. Not that I like wasting the time on it.
LOL!!
"Whaddya ya in for, cutie?"
"Uhhhh...computer hacking."
"You look pretty cute in that jump-suit, boy..."
The thing I wonder is: why do spammers keep trying. Does anyone actually respond to those asinine spam emails? Would you buy prescription drugs through an anonymous web site that uses poor spelled and annoying spam messages to generate traffic? Financial services? Do they actually get business from it, or did they just get spammed with offers that mass-emailing would increase their business?
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