Botnet Creator Indicted

The FBI has indicted 35 year-old Leni de Abreu Neto of Brazil with "one count of conspiracy to cause damage to computers worldwide". The charges carry a maximum five year prison sentence and $250,000 fine. Neto was arrested after allegedly creating and attempting to sell a botnet comprised of 100,000 infected computers. The botnet was believed to be largely used for spam and the distribution of malware. A co-conspirator, 19 year-old Nordin Nasiri of Sneek, Netherlands, is being questioned by Dutch authorities and has not yet been arrested. The last virus distributor that hailed from Sneek was 21 year-old Jan De Wit who used a toolkit to create the Anna Kournikova worm and distributed it via an Internet newsgroup, inexplicably drawing praise from the town's mayor. De Wit received a virtual wrist slap from Dutch authorities for his crime - 150 hours of community service (which he promptly appealed).