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Botnet owner sentenced to a year in prison

By Justin Mann

On October 26, 2007, 1:50 PM

It's a year in the bighouse for one Internet gangster, who has found himself on the losing end of a trial. Jason Downey, who was a former operator of a large botnet, has been sentenced to 12 months in prison along with a $21,000 fine for his part in operating the 6,000+ node network.

He was accused, among other things, of using the botnet to launch denial-of-service attacks. His sentence is actually quite lenient compared to another case last year, in which a young botnet owner was nailed for five years. Still, it goes to show how much more recognized digital crime (along with digital “harassment”) is today, and how much more serious law enforcement agencies and the courts, all around the world, are taking them.

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  1. October 26, 2007 5:38 PM
    phantasm66 said:
    [quote]...for his part in operating the 6,000+ node network.[/quote]That's a small one.
    Reply
  2. October 26, 2007 11:56 PM
    aspicer said:
    He'll be the Bot in jail.
    Reply
  3. October 27, 2007 5:31 AM
    phantasm66 said:
    Yeah, can't say I envy a geek who winds up in the slammer. They can smell your fear.
    Reply
  4. October 28, 2007 1:33 PM
    spydercanopus said:
    That's BS. You can't go to jail for hitting buttons on a machine. Ugh... net neutrality includes not having the judicial system overlook it.
    Reply
  5. October 28, 2007 4:49 PM
    phantasm66 said:
    [quote]You can't go to jail for hitting buttons on a machine[/quote]I am afraid you can. Just look at Kevin Mitnick.
    Reply

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