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back to article NZ police cuff teenage botnet mastermind suspect

New Zealand police have arrested an 18-year-old suspected of masterminding the compromise of a huge network of one million compromised PCs. The unnamed teenager, who police have identified only by his online moniker of AKILL, was arrested as part of a larger FBI-led operation aimed at cracking down on the trade in compromised …

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  1. Mike Holden
    Coat

    What's the point?

    What's the point of compromising some compromised PCs? Is it easier than compromising uncompromised PCs?

    Coat? Goddit.

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  2. g e

    65% eh

    You just have to wonder at what proportion of those browsers are what, dontcha. Any figures for that, anyone?

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  3. James
    Stop

    More than 2 in 3 (65%)

    Another Register article today reported the less than brilliant performance of students in science in the UK.

    "More than 2 in 3" = 2/3rds = 66.6666 repeating %. 65% is, therefore, less than 2 in 3 !

    Back to school....

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  4. Antony Riley
    Flame

    If this is Cyberwar....

    Two things don't add up - the teenage arrests for computer hacking in western countries and then pointing the fingers an eastern governments for "Cyberwarfare".

    Maybe they just don't care if their teenage kids hack western PCs, afterall, it's good IT training, and when they get older they'll have a clue about how to secure a company network against hackers, unlike the majority of clueless western sysadmins.

    I blame Holywood, making all those films glorifying hacking, then exporting them to countries where the illegality of it is not quite so apparent.

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  5. david

    Re: 65% eh

    considering that firefox is only the tiniest bit more secure than IE, does it really matter?

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  6. Mikey

    A lost boy?

    Here's a story on this from a nice source, this guy is a well respected tech journo down here in New Zealand and also has a son with Asperger's Syndrome:

    http://humans.org.nz/2007/12/03/getting-lost-on-a-straightforward-journey/

    Not to explain away the damage caused, perhaps an insight into what may be a teenager who struggles socially and has gotten out of their depth.

    Ta,

    Mikey

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