FBI arrest Zombie pusher

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 4 Nov 2005 at 16:17

The FBI has arrested a 20-year-old man from Los Angeles for profiting from adverts pushed to compromised computers on a zombie network.

Jeanson James Ancheta attacked computers to gain remote access in order to create a zombie network. He was then paid for installing adware on the network and sending spam through it.

He stands accused of conspiracy, attempted transmission of code to a protected computer, transmission of code to a government computer, accessing a protected computer to commit fraud and money laundering. If convicted of all counts, Ancheta could face a maximum term of 50 years in prison.

In a bid to expand his network, it appears Ancheta went an infection too far, and ended up compromising computers on the networks of the Weapons Division of the US Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, California and the US Department of Defense.

Ancheta was arrested when he was lured to FBI offices in order to pick up equipment seized in an earlier raid. He is thought to have made in the region of $60,000 from his activities with which he bought a new BMW and more computing equipment.

'Zombie botnets are a growing security problem as they pump out spam campaigns, steal information, or launch attacks against corporate networks,' said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. 'In this case it appears they were being primarily used for displaying unwanted pop-up advertisements, filling the pockets of the hacker with cash.'