Three Young Hackers Get Light Sentences After Assisting the FBI Fight Cybercrime

cageymaru

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Three hackers aged 21, 22, and 22 all received 5 years of probation and 62 1/2 weeks of community service in the U.S. District Court in Anchorage. Josiah White, Paras Jha, and Dalton Norman all pleaded guilty to computer fraud charges in December. They were ordered to pay $127,000 in restitution and relinquish a large amount of cryptocurrency that the trio had accumulated. They also agreed to continue helping the FBI fight cybercrime and assist in cybersecurity as part of their sentencing.

They trio had created the Mirai botnet to distribute malware and a clickfraud campaign to artificially generate advertising revenue from online ads. The young men had named the botnet after an anime that they were all fond of.

The men created a collection of hundreds of thousands of computers and internet-connected devices -- including routers, webcams and other devices -- infected with malware that they controlled, according to court documents. A broad "denial of service" attack waged using the Mirai botnet knocked platforms such as Twitter and Netflix offline in October 2016. Prosecutors said they don't believe the three men were responsible for that attack because Jha had already posted the code for Mirai to online criminal forums.
 
at least maybe they can keep gainful employment after this?
seems like a win win to me, they really only are getting absorbed by a larger criminal organization ... right?
 
Crime for them does pay, look at all the cool shit they get to put on their resumes.
 
Stupid - if anything the FBI should be actively trying to recruit them for a full time position IMO.
 
Stupid - if anything the FBI should be actively trying to recruit them for a full time position IMO.

The FBI might once the community service is finished. 62 weeks should be long enough to figure out if they are really good or just got lucky. The poor guy from Louisiana is in for a weather shock if he has to serve his time in Anchorage. At least the other two have seen inches of snow.
 
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