If the penalty for having a few hundred infected machines serving as bots can end up with someone facing a ten year jail sentence, what would happen if another person was controlling over a million machines? That's what 18 year old Owen Walker will find out, after pleading guilty to operating a botnet that was 1.3 million PCs wide. Though the young culprit lives in New Zealand, he was actually targeted and caught by the FBI as part of their continued operations to dismantle botnets and find their owners.
The judge reviewing the case said it is unlikely he will be getting jail time considering Walker's age and the fact that he suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, which can hinder his social skills. Also it hasn't been proved whether he directly profited from the botnet, despite selling his code to third parties.