19-year-old p2p botnet pioneer agrees to plead guilty The author of a Trojan that broke new ground by incorporating peer-to-peer technology into botnet design has agreed to plead guilty to secretly infecting thousands of victims' machines so that he could steal their personal data and launch attacks on websites. Jason Michael Milmont, 19, of Cheyenne, Wyoming, admitted to …
" . . .sensitive information stored in Internet Explorer to spare users the hassle of having to remember passwords . . "
Yeah, well -- it's like leaving yer car keys on a table in the hall. The door's locked but anyone with a wire coat hanger or long pole (ooh, err missus) gets the car. Once again M$ should be partly to blame for leading customers on about what they call 'Security'.
For 19 years old this kid did some impressive stuff but he only stole1·5 k in goods?
Obviously not so much of a big time criminal as a stupid kid.
If he goes to prison in California for five years, when he comes out after the equivalent of a residential degree course in crime, he will be big time. What he needs is some one to take him on as some kind of mentor and expand and direct his skills in somewhat more socially acceptable directions.
" . . .sensitive information stored in Internet Explorer to spare users the hassle of having to remember passwords . . "
Yeah, well -- it's like leaving yer car keys on a table in the hall. The door's locked but anyone with a wire coat hanger or long pole (ooh, err missus) gets the car. Once again M$ should be partly to blame for leading customers on about what they call 'Security'.
Hmm Firefox store passwords to. I've found that fire fix will store field info. Might not sound bad unless that field is fora CC number.
[quote=somefool]What he needs is some one to take him on as some kind of mentor and expand and direct his skills in somewhat more socially acceptable directions.[unquote]
You mean like the National Socialist Party helped Hitler redecorate the map of Europe?
The problem with that scenario is that you don't know what firm is waitng stage left, to take over residence when you leave.
Look who the landlord's agents Rostefelt and Crutchell let the place to for the next 50 years.
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: [after discovering Private Pyle's unlocked footlocker] Jesus H Christ. Private Pyle, why is your footlocker unlocked?
Private Gomer Pyle: Sir, I don't know, sir.
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Private Pyle, if there is one thing in this world that I hate, it is an unlocked footlocker! You know that don't you?
Private Gomer Pyle: Sir, yes, sir.
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: If it wasn't for %#@*heads like you, there wouldn't be any thievery in this world, would there?
Private Gomer Pyle: Sir, no, sir.
nuff said.
What was wrong with Hitler? He was good hearted and meant well , and his mum loved him.
My comment was intended to be tongue in cheek, although it is true that five years will make him even less pleasant than he already is. When you read how he engineered what he did, it is clear that he has a devious, antisocial and indeed sociopathic mind set. Rehabilitation is a myth which is a shame, as it is , in this case, a waste of a clever brain.
5 years for this crime? It isn't enough. He should get ten years for this.
The law enforcement agencies should me making an example of him to act as a deterrent to everyone else.
There are so many facets to computer crime, we need some contraversial high profile prosecutions to provide an effective deterrent.
"Rehabilitation is a myth"
Pfft only if you live in the only country in the western world where crime is rising. Rehabilitation works just fine. However the media finds that boring so you never hear about it. Crime is down in the western world but the media reporting of crime is going up everyday.
You want to send a 19 year old child prodigy into some of the least humane living conditions on the planet for doing little more than proving current investigative techniques for online crime fallible? $1500 is less than I earn in a month, and i'm bottom-rung tech suopport. He's hardly a MAFIAA-scale criminal mastermind.
I hope they stick this kid into a scheme where he can get a decent clue about life outside 'the box' and put his skills to more useful enterprises.
Granted it was the wrong way to to about getting notariety, but (speculatively) if his parents think he's just an anti-social nerd and his teachers at school mistook his reclusiveness for some learning disability and held him back, where else did he have to go?
Bill Gates Devil for the IE reference.
"In April 2007, for example, he used stolen credit card information to make a $1,422 purchase from Hinsite Global Technologies"
"He's also agreed to pay almost $74,000 in restitution."
I think the $1,422 thing is just one example, and considering he's paying $74,000 restitution I think it's fair to say the card abuse wasn't a one time thing.
He should be forced to work technical support until he'd done the equivelant amount of time* that he made everyone waste cleaning up his mess.
* Probably a lifetime.
Well, rehabilitation doesn't seem to work, either. They're either already solidly against the system so that they'll just "bide their time" and go right back to business as soon as it's over or they're either so dense or so empty that anything you try to teach them either bounces off (the former) or passes right through (the latter).
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