Texas botnet herder pleads guilty

A Texas man pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Dallas to charges of developing a botnet of 22,000 PCs with the intention of renting it out to other cybercriminals, a court official told SCMagazineUS.com. To attract prospective buyers, David Edwards used the botnet to attack The Planet, a Dallas-based internet service provider, and then broke into servers operated by hosting provider T35 Hosting. Edwards allegedly carried out the scheme with a Texas co-conspirator, Thomas Smith, who pleaded innocent and is scheduled to be tried May 17. Both men were charged with conspiracy and face a maximum of five years in prison. — AM

Sign up to our newsletters

More in News

Flaw in BlackBerry Protect app addressed, impacts Z10 smartphone users

To exploit the vulnerability, an intruder would need a user's device password and a bit of skill to access troves of data on the phone.

Tor to blame for its users being unable to access Facebook

Malicious activity on the anonymity software's network tripped Facebook's "site integrity systems."

Malicious email that recipient is on "Prism watchlist" linked to just-uncovered espionage ...

According to the 9b+ security research blog, the email targeted a member of the Tibetan Youth Congress in India.