Hacker gets 30 months for botnet that hit 72,000 PCs
Joshua Schichtel on Thursday received a 30-month prison sentence after pleading guilty last year to creating a botnet that infected 72,000 computers.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 30-year-old Schichtel sold access to botnets, which are networks of thousands of malware-infected computers, to scammers, who would contact Schichtel and pay him to install the malware on computers that comprised the botnet.
The hacker admitted to allowing software to be installed on about 72,000 computers on behalf of customers who paid him $1,500 (£938) for his services, according to the DOJ. In August 2011, Schichtel pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to cause damage to multiple computers without authorisation by the transmission of programs, codes or commands, in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
