Teenage Boy Hacked 30,000 Computers

Ng Han Xian, a teen from Singapore, broke into nearly 30,000 computers in 2005 when he was studying O levels. The teenager earned US$ 35,000 (S$48,700) for circulating advertisement. He was given two month imprisonment on June 24, 2010 for illegal access to the data and programs in the computers.

According to the information released by the district court, the teenager fled to China in November 2007 but arrested in January 2010 after his return to Singapore. The investigators discovered that he had been hosting a botnet (a combination of terms 'network' and 'botnet.' It indicates to a group of networked computers known as zombies or bots infected with a malicious program that permits unauthorized access to the hacker.

The botnets under his control were connected with rival servers that cause them to crash because of overloading. The server established by 'Ng' cleared off crashes. With the help of this server, he earned a big amount of money. Hence, Ng's botnets turned out to be money spinner for him.

In August 2005, Ng signed an affiliate of Gammacash and Zangocash - two adware companies that make money by diverting online traffic to online advertisements.

Ng received money from the two adware companies for each installed adware program that show advertisements and each website under his botnet. He disclosed to the police that till September 2005, he earned around US$ 35,000.

According to the information released by the district court, the police came to know about his techniques in September 2005 when Caine Poh Zhenlong (one of his victims) filed a complained to the police. Caine Poh Zhenlong said to the police that he suspected Ng for launching attacks against his game server that hosted a community of computer game lovers. These computer lovers indulged in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games like Counterstrike.

While the court could impose a fine for the offence, Roy Neighbour, District Judge, said that in the case, the victim had breached the threshold of custodial sentence, as reported by Straits Times on June 24, 2010. Ng could have sent for imprisonment of two years and a fine of around $5,000.

Related article: Teenage Prosecuted For Spamming

» SPAMfighter News - 7/9/2010