OMG, the FBI is so LOL! That’s actually the name of their “botnet hacker sting” operation that is beginning to be reported. Mmmm, bot roast. So not vegan. Oh, and look out for “bad guys”. Snip from SFGate/AP:
“Bad guys will continue to use whatever tools are available on the vulnerable, on people who are unaware or unsuspecting,” [FBI Deputy Assistant Director Shawn Henry] said.
Hackers create botnets by scanning the Internet for vulnerable computers, which are then infected and instructed to join the botnet. Because the hacker has complete control of each “bot” computer, the botnet can be used to launch denial-of-service attacks, send spam e-mail, steal account login information or run any program.
Recent busts of botnet hackers, as part of the FBI’s “Operation Bot Roast” sting, include:
_James C. Brewer, of Arlington, Texas. He was indicted Tuesday on charges of infecting more than 10,000 computers globally, including two Chicago-area hospitals operated by the Bureau of Health Services in Cook County, Ill. The computers at the two hospitals were linked to the health care bureau’s mainframe system. They repeatedly froze or rebooted from October to December last year, resulting in delayed medical services, according to the indictment. Brewer was released on a $4,500 bond, court records show.
_Robert Alan Soloway of Seattle. When he was arrested last month, he was described as one of the world’s top spammers for allegedly using botnets to send out millions upon millions of junk e-mails since 2003. Soloway continued his activities even after Microsoft won a $7 million civil judgment against him in 2005 and after Robert Brauer, the operator of a small Internet service provider in western Oklahoma, won a $10 million judgment. Soloway has pleaded not guilty to all charges in a 35-count indictment.
_Jason Michael Downey, of Covington, Ky. He was accused in Detroit last month of flooding his botnet-linked computers with spam for an 11-week period in 2004 and causing up to $20,000 in unspecified losses, according to court records.
Link.