Man nicked for botnet attack

A US MAN has been sent down for three years for launching a Botnet attack on the Department of Defense, a Seattle hospital and a California school district.

Christopher Maxwell, 21, of Vacaville, California will be on probation for three years after his release. He admitted federal charges of conspiracy to intentionally cause damage to a protected computer and conspiracy to commit computer fraud.

Judge Marsha Pechman said the sentence was designed to send a message to hackers who are "squirreled away in their basements hacking." She said that the crime was incredibly self-centred with little regard for the impact on others.

Defence attorney Steve Bauer said that Maxwell did not intend his robot virus program to spread as far as it did.

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