As part of Operation Bot Roast a hacker named, Robert Matthew Bentley, 21, of Panama City, Florida has plead guilty to a pair of felony counts. Bently, who at times used the moniker LSDigital, was responsible in part for a massive botnet that spanned the globe.
From the Register UK:
An indictment alleged that Bentley and his cronies generated “thousands of dollars” from their botnets. According to court papers signed last week by Bentley, he had applied for an account with DollarRevenue dot com, which “pays others for, among other things, the unauthorized intrusion and placement of adware on to vulnerable computers.”
The bot masters, at least one of whom was located in Philadelphia, used the domain name smokedro.com as a command and control channel. They breached Newell Rubbermaid using at least three malicious files bearing the names 84785_redworld[1].exe, mssecure.exe and msiupdate.exe.
Under terms agreed to in the plea agreement, Bentley may qualify for “the granting of relief” if he provides “substantial assistance in the investigation or prosecution of other persons who have committed offenses.”
Ah, the carrot. So will he turn on his fellow ne’er do wells?
