Teenage botmaster SoBe sentenced

Sophos reported in February how the teenage zombie herder who went by the nickname “SoBe” (his real identity has not been made public) had pleaded guilty to seizing control of almost 400,000 computers, and generating revenue by installing adware upon them.

Some of the computers compromised by SoBe’s antics were based at the Weapons Division of the US Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, California and at the US Department of Defense, which inevitably lead to the authorities showing great interest in tracking him down.

In a fascinating new feature published in The Register, journalist Dan Goodin exclusively reveals how he…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky, or drop him an email.

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