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| CURRENT SECTION :: TechZone | UK's most visited IT Contractor Site - 250k unique visitors March 2008 |
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An IT consultant who tried to obtain computer users’ PayPal details with an army of 250,000 ‘zombie’ PCs faces a jail sentence of up to 60 years. Working as a security expert for 3G Communications, John Schiefer, 26, unleashed a botnet army to harvest consumers’ usernames, passwords and other personal details. Under terms of a plea agreement filed by Schiefer last week, he will plead guilty to four felony counts that could earn him 60 years in a federal jail and a fine of $1.75m. Los Angeles-based Schiefer will admit to accessing protected computers to conduct fraud, disclosing illegally intercepted electronic communications, wire fraud and bank fraud. Having stolen PayPal usernames and passwords, Schiefer used his IT job to make purchases from unwitting victims’ accounts, with the help of other accomplices. Security experts have welcomed the imminent sentence, not least for Schiefer’s part in collecting a botnet comprising of a quarter of a million computers. “The authorities should be applauded for investigating crimes like this and bringing criminals to justice”, said Graham Cluley, security consultant at Sophos. “But there are plenty of other hackers engaged in these activities who are still managing to escape the clutches of the law.” All PC owners were urged to employ common sense, an up-to-date anti-virus package, firewalls, and security patches. In line with the warnings, Sophos has reminded that Microsoft issued two new security bulletins on Tuesday, one of which is rated as ‘critical,’ about vulnerabilities in its software. Nov 15, 2007 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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