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*** FBI Pulls Plug On Several Botnet Hackers ***

WASHINGTON, DC -- 06/14/2007
More than 1 million computers — possibly yours, too — are used by
hackers as remote-controlled robots to crash online systems, accept
spam and steal users' personal information, the FBI said Wednesday.

The government has no way to track down all the computers, both in the
U.S. and elsewhere, that hackers have massed into centrally controlled
collections known as botnets.

But the FBI has pulled the plug on several botnet hackers, or zombies.
One man was charged this week in a scheme that froze computer
systems at Chicago-area hospitals in 2006 and delayed medical services.

What was viewed seven years ago as a kind of prank to boot people
off-line has evolved into schemes to defraud people by stealing credit
card and Social Security data, by crashing retail Web sites and through
"pump-and-dump" online stock deals.

In those stock cases, hackers break into online trading accounts to buy
and sell stocks, pumping up the price of those they can liquidate and
then dumping them.

FBI Deputy Assistant Director Shawn Henry said in an interview
Wednesday, "There will likely be spam sent on the heels of this case,"
people portraying themselves to be from the FBI or saying, 'We're
investigating the big botnet case that you heard about and we need
to check your computer. Provide us this information.'

"Bad guys will continue to use whatever tools are available on the
vulnerable, on people who are unaware or unsuspecting," Henry said.

Hackers create botnets by scanning the Internet for vulnerable
computers, which are then infected and instructed to join the botnet.

Because the hacker has complete control of each "bot" computer, the
botnet can be used to launch denial-of-service attacks, send spam
e-mail, steal account login information or run any program.

Recent busts of botnet hackers, as part of
the FBI's "Operation Bot Roast" sting, include:

_James C. Brewer, of Arlington, Texas. He was indicted Tuesday
on charges of infecting more than 10,000 computers globally,
including two Chicago-area hospitals operated by the Bureau of
Health Services in Cook County, Ill. The computers at the two
hospitals were linked to the health care bureau's mainframe system.

They repeatedly froze or rebooted from October to December last
year, resulting in delayed medical services, according to the indictment.
Brewer was released on a $4,500 bond, court records show.

_Robert Alan Soloway of Seattle. When he was arrested last month,
he was described as one of the world's top spammers for allegedly
using botnets to send out millions upon millions of junk e-mails since 2003.

Soloway continued his activities even after Microsoft won a $7 million civil
judgment against him in 2005 and after Robert Brauer, the operator of a
small Internet service provider in western Oklahoma, won a $10 million
judgment. Soloway has pleaded not guilty to all charges in a 35-count
indictment.

_Jason Michael Downey, of Covington, Ky. He was accused in Detroit last
month of flooding his botnet-linked computers with spam for an 11-week
period in 2004 and causing up to $20,000 in unspecified losses, according
to court records.

The FBI's Henry said agents are investigating thousands of cyberfraud
and computer intrusion cases, although it is not clear how many might
be linked to botnets.

He said people should have their computers checked regularly for
evidence of botnet infection, including using antivirus software or
security firewalls.

"People have their cars inspected once a year to make sure they're
safe," Henry said. "You've got to do the same types of things with
your computers."
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