Hacker Prosecuted For Devious Actions

US district judge is considering Federal prosecutors' argument in deciding whether to issue a six-years imprisonment to Chris Maxwell aged 20, a hacker belonging to California. Chris created a virus that harmed thousands of computers including many at Northwest Hospital in Seattle as well as US military appliances.

However, Maxwell's lawyer Steven Bauer plans to put the argument that court documents warrant only probation and community service, as defending contentions against the accusations. He will cite Maxwell's lack of criminal record to defend and claim that Maxwell did not mean to spread his virus so extensively.

Maxwell is known to work on his virus for his home PC without disclosing his identity. He used the virus to attack other computers. Assistant US Attorney Kathryn Warma explained in a sentencing memorandum that Maxwell with his entire will and intention organized a campaign of global computer network attacks. Warma further wrote that Maxwell's secured position and apparent belief that he had taken sufficient steps to hide his actions and identity would keep him above law.

Maxwell's 'botnet' virus even infected computers at 'Colton Unified School' district disabling the computers for use and costing heavily on repairs. Maxwell's robot virus is estimated to infect approximately 441,000 PCs.

Steven Bauer has retaliated to the prosecutors' accusations by saying that the Government was using Maxwell as a 'poster boy' to deal with similar events in future. Bauer argued that although the defendant in the particular case had created the 'bot', but there was no clear evidence that he had the mind to cause the harm that spread subsequently.

Botnets are malware sent out to infect computers through the Internet to exploit the security loopholes. They are so programmed that botnet creators can send commands, divert information to third parties, and set an in-built feature that lets to spread further to other computers.

Maxwell was assisted by two other individuals who live in Texas and are also facing similar charges. The names of these persons are not revealed. Federal prosecutors report that Maxwell and his associate first hacked computers of various State Universities. Then they gradually spread the botnet to infect other PCs.

Related article: Hacker & Virus in MySpace

» SPAMfighter News - 8/29/2006