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New Zombie King Gets 3 Years
SecurityProNews
Staff Writer
2006-08-30
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The latest "zombie king," or botnet hacker succeeding the jailed zombie king before him, was sentenced to three years in prison by a US District judge in California.
I wonder how hackers fare in prison…
"What are you in for?
"Using an army of robots to take control of hundreds of thousands of computers to spam people and put adware on their computers," he said nasally, thin and pale.
"Well, it's your lucky day," said the tattooed behemoth, incarcerated for eating a car. "I don't use protection, either."
US District Judge Marsha J. Pechman sentenced 21-year-old Christopher Maxwell of Vacaville, California to three years in jail, plus three years supervised released, and ordered him to pay $250,000 in retribution.
Maxwell and company are said to have made $100,000 in advertising commissions for setting up a zombie network designed to install adware on unprotected computers. He confessed to infecting some 50,000 computers at US military bases, including the Department of Defense, schools, and a Seattle hospital.
Security firm Sophos reports that Maxwell caused the most damage to the hospital, as the attack shut down computers in the intensive care unit and prevented doctors' pagers from working properly.
The DoD cited $135,000 worth of damage (to get that in real world money, divide by a factor of 27.3) to its computers. Colton school district in southern California estimated $75,0000 in computer repairs.
"Hackers who create a zombie network, or botnet, are trying to steal and spy on innocent people, and don't care about the consequences. In this case military bases and a hospital network were affected, with obvious possible consequences," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, who likes to lecture about lax security.
"Other hackers should look long and hard at the punishment Maxwell has received and ask themselves whether they really think internet crime is a career they wish to continue pursuing,"
The previous Zombie King, Jeanson James Ancheta, received a 57 month jail sentence in May after seizing control of 400,000 PCs.
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