3-year Sentence for California Hacker
31 Aug, 2006, 11:58 am IST | by
Sharon Khare
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21-year-old California resident, Christopher Maxwell, accused of infecting 50,000 computers at US military bases, schools and a Seattle hospital has received a three year jail sentence as well as a quarter of a million dollar fine. Maxwells attack struck hard at Northwest Hospital and Medical Center in north Seattle. The attack is said to have shut down computers in the facilitys intensive care unit and prevented doctors pagers from working properly. Maxwell also caused more than $135,000 worth of damage by infecting Department of Defense computers, as well as those belonging to the hospital, when he and two juveniles unleashed malware designed to install adware on affected PCs. The three are said to have been paid more than $100,000 through the resulting advertising commission revenue. Furthermore, the Colton school district in southern California estimated that it cost up to $75,000 to repair its computers after an attack. Hackers who create a zombie network, or botnet, are trying to steal and spy on innocent people, and dont care about the consequences. In this case military bases and a hospital network were affected, with obvious possible consequences. The American authorities have done well in bringing another offender to justice, said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. All types of organization need to put in place proper defenses to ensure their computers PCs do not become part of a botnet. Every PC should be properly defended by up-to-date anti-virus software, firewalls, and the latest security patches. Maxwells sentence is not the toughest handed out to a hacker involved in creating botnets. In May, Jeanson James Ancheta received a 57 month jail sentence after seizing control of 400,000 PCs. |
Tags: Sophos , California , zombie network
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