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.