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Another one bites the dust with another reasonably hefty sentence, this time a botherder or botnet<\/a> master.<\/p>\n Just under 4 years and a big chunk of change as a fine, I guess he probably has plenty of cash stashed somewhere though. These guys can really rake it in with their mass infectors of doom.<\/p>\n A US-based hacker has been sentenced to 41 months in jail for breaking into corporate computers in Europe and making them part of a money-generating botnet.<\/p>\n Robert Matthew Bentley, 21, of Panama City, Florida, was also ordered to perform three years of supervised release once his prison time is over and to pay $65,000 in restitution, according to federal prosecutors in Pensacola, Florida.<\/p>\n In March, Bentley, who sometimes went by the alias LSDigital, pleaded guilty to two felony counts related to his botnet activities, which inflicted more than $150,000 worth of damage on Newell Rubbermaid. Starting as early as December 2006, Bentley and several unnamed co-conspirators installed customized bots on hundreds of the company’s computers. The malware generated so much traffic on Rubbermaid’s servers that its network stopped functioning.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n He pleaded guilty which might have saved him from getting an even heavier punishment, I guess he know they had enough evidence to nail him soundly so he may as well look after his interests.<\/p>\n I wonder if his conspirators will get busted too?<\/p>\n New infections from the attack were being detected as recently as March, four months after Bentley was arrested. Federal agents continue to investigate the uncharged suspects. At least one of them lived in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n Federal prosecutors began their case after the Metropolitan Police Computer Crime Unit in London fielded a complaint from Rubbermaid representatives in Europe. According to court documents, Bentley and his cronies generated “thousands of dollars” by installing adware from DollarRevenue.com on the infected machines.<\/p>\n The bot masters used the domain name smokedro.com as a command and control channel. They breached Newell Rubbermaid using at least three malicious files bearing the names 84785_redworld[1].exe, mssecure.exe and msiupdate.exe.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It looks like they had it pretty well wrapped up and by the looks of it (new infection in March) they are still going strong.<\/p>\n I wonder what the status is now?<\/p>\n They were busted as part of the FBI campaign known as Operation Bot Roast<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n