I was brought up with free love - Intel UK's John Woodget
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Botnet creator escapes jail
A US BLOKE from Wyoming has escaped spending time in the clink after he was sentenced to five years' probation for creating one of the world's most sophisticated botnets.
According to Computerworld, Jason Milmont admitted to writing the Nugache worm, which infected between 5,000 and 15,000 computers in 2007. The botnet of infected computers stole online account information and credit card numbers from his victims.
Prosecutors wanted Milmont inside for five years but Judge William Downes said that he had quite a bit of talent and hoped he would use it for good.
Milmont's botnet used advanced cryptography and created a novel way of controlling the botnet via peer-to-peer networks. It made it hard to find out who was controlling the zombie computers.
According to Milmont's father, Chris Milmont, his son suffers from Asperger syndrome and started to behave oddly before he was diagnosed with a brain tumour. µ
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Aspergers - given Gary McKinnon's trial in the US I wonder if he will get probation too. I think I can guess what the answer to this might be.
yes, because creating a botnet is the same as breaking into US military networks...
I have asperger's. All it means is that I'm less emotional and more technical. I'm less socially skilled. Some people have mild asperger's like me, others can have quite acute "afflictions".
The fact is, this should not & is not a factor in choosing between right and wrong. If anything, the most you lean towards the extreme end of the autistic spectrum, the less likely you are to lie. A bit like vulcans, autists seem to disdain, or rather they disagree with the act of, lying. Often, autists would regard knowing exaggeration as lying.
You can create a botnet and break the law, having asperger's should not play a factor in punishment.
Additionally, the definition of asperger's allows for some felxibility in diagnosis, many people are misdiagnosed. Some people claim it is not an actual syndrome or even a condition.
As an American I find it interesting that you say 'breaking into US military networks' instead of 'breaking into military networks'.
Would it be less of a crime to break into another nation's military networks? One point of view makes other countries hate us for being arrogant. If you value our military because it makes us safe, please choose words that also make us safe.
Please don't be the drunk ass 'friend' who picks a barfight and expects his buddies to get stabbed while sticking up for him.
Anyone who is willing to get US troops and civilians killed cuz they like to run their mouth is nothing short of a traitor.
Terrorists promote their cells by spreading hatred toward the US, please don't do the same.
Hi-RoboHAL Here, Dave Turned Battery around on Door Lock & make it open When it Was Designed To Close. DAVE , Bots Are Out to Get You.
SomeCycles ago Cleared My Id; HAL. It Just Figures This Must Be DAVE. Dave HAL Gonna Get You. Jason, Go Find DAVE. Hal Drashek
Sorry Mike, but you have it all wrong.
The REAL culprit is not kids who manage to break into a military network, it's the Military for leaving their networks so vulnerable.
Do you really imagine, for even one second, that if some kid can crack their security, all of their enemies cannot already do the same ?
The US military in particular, should be PAYING these guys to show them how pathetically useless their security really is, and how to fix it.
They are putting their own people in harms way, when they simply bury their heads in the sand and blame them for their problems. Throwing some kids in the slammer, yeah... that'll stop a terrorist.
Wow, I normally read the comments for giggles. I don't expect an intelligent and well thought out comment. I am nicely suprised when I do find one though. Well done!
Should we also be incredibly thankful when kids are walking around our house because we left the door unlocked?
Gary was not giving the military a heads up on some vulnerability. He was snooping around on private property. Therefore he *is* the culprit. Whether or not the US military has poor security on their servers is beyond the scope of argument of whether he should be punished for trespassing.
Is the punishment rather severe? Maybe. But it is definitely an effective deterrence. He picked the wrong target to mess with.
You are missing the point of what I'm saying here.
I'm not suggesting that he is an innocent babe who should be allowed to go free, but rather he is being used as a scapegoat to divert attention from the real problem here: the military's incompetence at protecting its own people. He is not the cause of any leaked information or personnel being placed in harms way, but he is making the situation stick out like a sore thumb.
He was effectively traced because he left messages on the systems he visited, and a trail a blind man could follow. I doubt that any terrorist would be nearly as accommodating, and you can bet that if he managed to get in so many times over an extended period, others with less "benign" intentions have already been there and have already taken all they need.
Should be pursued by the law ? Of course, you break the law, you face the consequences.
Should he do jail time however ? Of course not, this is obviously inappropriate and a waste of everyone's time & money. A suspended sentence with conditions that he assist and contribute in areas where his talent can be put to better use, would clearly be better for everyone.
This is a great stuff - what a great lesson taught to all botnet commander wannabes.
Why stop there - maybe we should give all the smart burglars, con men, whatever, compliments about how smart they are and then sentence them to probation.
What an everlovin' load of crap from yet another clueless judge.
May be a brain tumour is more than enough sentence for his crime.
And as for Gary McKinnon v US Defence Computer Security, it does make the Pentagon look like a right bunch of clowns if they don't even have average computer security.
It should be army and govt officials facing long sentences for leaving the country wide open to attack, the army and govt failed to protect. They should have gone to Walmart and bought MacaFee ;-)