KEY POINTS:
Whitianga teen 'AKILL', who being questioned for allegedly running huge botnets to commit cyber criminal acts, was caught as a result of the FBI's ongoing 'Bot Roast' operation.
An FBI release says that since the original operation earlier in the year, eight have been caught for botnet-related crimes.
The ongoing investigative effort has uncovered $26 million in economic loss and more than a million infected computers.
It is unclear how much the Whitianga 18-year-old's cyber criminal activities have cost. He is understood to have been leasing his botnet to other spammers for money.
AKILL's US associate Ryan Brett Goldstein, 21, was indicted this month by a grand jury for a DDoS attack on an American university.
It is likely that the FBI will move to extradite AKILL to face charges in the United States.
If this happens, he will join these hackers caught in the Bureau's latest investigation, dubbed Bot Roast 2.
"Today, botnets are the weapon of choice of cyber criminals. They seek to conceal their criminal activities by using third party computers as vehicles for their crimes," said FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, III in a press release on the operation.
"In Bot Roast II, we see the diverse and complex nature of crimes that are being committed through the use of botnets.
"Despite this enormous challenge, we will continue to be aggressive in finding those responsible for attempting to exploit unknowing Internet users."
Adam Sweaney, 27, of Tacoma, Washington, pled guilty on September 24, 2007 in US District Court, District of Columbia, to a one count felony violation for conspiracy fraud and related activity in connection with computers.
He conspired with others to send tens of thousands of email messages during a one-year period. He took over of hundreds of thousands of bot controlled computers, which he would then lease the botnet to others who launched spam and DDoS attacks.
Robert Matthew Bentley, of Florida, was indicted this week by a federal grand jury for his involvement in botnet-related activity involving coding and adware schemes. He is part of an ongoing operation by the US Secret Service.
Alexander Dmitriyevich Paskalov, 38, of multiple US addresses, was sentenced in October in a Florida court to 42 months for a multi-million dollar phishing scheme targeting a major financial institution.
Azizbek Takhirovich Mamadjanov, 21, was sentenced to 24 months in prison for his part in the same phishing scheme as Paskalov, who established a bogus company and opened accounts in its name.
The phishing scam targeted other businesses and transferred millions into their bogus business' account.
John Schiefer, 26, of Los Angeles, a well-known in the botnet underworld, agreed to plead guilty to four felonies in August. He used malware to intercept communications and steal personal details, sometimes using them to fraudulently buy goods for himself. Shiefer's case was the first time that saw federal wiretap laws used in relation to botnets.
Gregory King, 21, of California, was indicted by a grand jury in September on four counts of transmission of code to cause damage to a protected computer. King allegedly conducted DDoS attacks against companies, including one that specialised in combating phishing and malware.
Jason Michael Downey, 24, of Kentucky, was sentenced to 12 months in prison followed by probation, restitution, and community service for botherding a large botnet that ran concerted DDoS attacks resulting in substantial damages. He operated IRC (Internet Relay Chat) network Rizon, and said he committed most of the attacks on other IRC networks and their operators.
His targets were often on shared servers containing other parties' data. These innocent parties fell victim to his DDoS attacks, with one person confirming damages of $US19,500 as a result.
- NZ HERALD STAFF
