Antivirus News

Two alleged cybercriminals are waiting to hear if they will have to go to jail for their part in creating and running a 1.5-million-strong botnet. Dutch authorities are hoping that the presiding judge at the court in the southern city of Breda will send the two unnamed individuals, who are 20 and 28 years old, to prison for a maximum of three years.

Police arrested the two men in their homes in Loop op Zand and Rijswijk back in 2005. In what has been the biggest cybercrime investigation in the legal history of the Netherlands, the prosecution claim to have proved both men created a massive network of bot computers. In order to hijack the 1.5 million PCs they used a special worm known as �??Toxbot�?�. Additionally, Dutch media have claimed that the pair were involved with the Russian Internet mafia and helped to write a Trojan called �??Wayphisher�?� that was used to steal private financial data from victims in Europe and US.

The prosecution service in the Netherlands has also alleged that the criminal group carried out cyberblackmailing. It is claimed the men threatened to carry out a Denial of Service attack on US advertising firm 180Solutions Inc., previously known as Zango Inc. The American company has in the past been linked with illicit promotion techniques and surreptitious installation of its products. Another claim from the police has been that the two men participated in phishing attacks, stealing financial data and gaining access to e-banking and PayPal accounts. These stolen funds were then used to fund the purchase of computer and other electronic goods, such as gaming consoles. Now, though, the prosecution hopes that money will be recouped: apart from the jail sentence it has asked the judge to impose large monetary fines totalling some 60 thousand Euros on the accused. A final verdict will be returned on 30 January.