Hackers get jail term
Jordan Bradley and Andrew Harvey have been handed down sentences of three and six months respectively at Newcastle Crown Court for their part in the development and distribution of the THr34t Krew computer virus that has infected thousands of computers across the world.
Jordan Bradley and Andrew Harvey have been handed down sentences of three and six months respectively at Newcastle Crown Court for their part in the development and distribution of the THr34t Krew computer virus that has infected thousands of computers across the world.
Following an investigation by officers from the UKs National Hi-Tech Crime Unit and the US multi-agency CATCH team (Computer and Technology Crime Hi-Tech Response Team) based in Southern California, Bradley and Harvey were arrested in February 2003.
Once connected to the Internet, the infected computer connected to a number of computers under the control of the THr34t-Krew that became known as the TK worm.
The hackers were then able to send commands to the infected hosts. These commands ranged from scanning other computers for vulnerabilities to starting Distributed Denial of Service attacks on other computers and websites. The TK worm was self-replicating and able to spread itself across the Internet distributing itself to other computers.
All of these compromised computers together formed a botnet. More and more, organised crime is using botnets to commit crime over the Internet, either using the botnets themselves or hiring people with IT expertise to create the botnets.