Botmaster Sentenced to 57 Months in Prison

May 8, 2006

A 21-year-old California man was sentenced today to 57 months in prison for hacking into hundreds of thousands of computers and renting the network of hacked PCs out to spyware companies and to people who used the network to send spam and launch crippling attacks against Web sites.

Jeanson James Ancheta of Downey, Calif., admitted that he used Internet worms to seize control over a massive numbers of PCs running the Windows OS. He used those computers as an install base for online ad-serving software that netted him more than $61,000 and a BMW sports car.

Ancheta also pleaded guilty to breaking into computers at the weapons division of the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake and the Defense Information Systems Agency, causing roughly $15,000 worth of damage.

According to the indictment, Ancheta made about $3,000 renting out portions of his zombie network to spammers and other criminals, usually in increments of 10,000 hacked machines at a time.

James Aquilina, the assistant US attorney who prosecuted Ancheta on behalf of the federal government, called it the longest sentence ever handed down for a case involving the spreading of computer viruses, and said he hopes the unprecedented sentencing sends a strong message to other botmasters and malicious young hackers.

Aquilina said. "My hope is that this sentence will deter others from using botnets to commit crimes, especially the youthful ones who commit these crimes and think they're immune from prosecution, that they'll never get caught."

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