Suspected Mariposa Botnet Creator Arrested

mehemiah writes "The writer of the Mariposa Botnet has been arrested through international effort. The FBI said this arrest and the arrests of three alleged operators in February were the result of a two-year joint investigation into the Mariposa Botnet, which may have infected as many as eight million to 12 million computers around the world."

Re:Two years?

[Anonymous Coward]

It took two years and a task force of how many, costing how much, to bring down three people? 8--12 million computers infected? That sure says a lot about the state of network security, and law enforcement's ineptitude for technology. We could give them supreme lord powers and allow summary executions and they'd still be behind because they just don't understand the technology.

I kind of find it funny how frequently I see arguments on Slashdot for keeping the internet free and open with many international liberties intact. And then when something bad thrives in that environment, it's "law enforcement's ineptitude for technology" that is to blame. Very cute, girlintraining.

Re:Two years?

[abigor]

Just curious, how would you have gone about finding them? You seem to imply you have a deep understanding of the technology involved.

Re:Well, thanks goodness...

[Beardo the Bearded]

Life isn't like 24, Law and Order, or Hackers.

First, in order to put someone in jail, you have to be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they did, in fact, commit the crime. That means you have to have evidence that they actually did the crime, that the don't have an alibi, and have all the evidence admissible in court.

"But my computer was compromised too!" would be a decent defence. How can you get around this? You'd have to track the commands for the botnet and trace each one back to a physical location. You'd then have to prove that whats-his-name was actually at that location at each of those times. Did he use an unsecured wifi hotspot all the time? Did he use his home address? Work? Is there a pattern that points to one individual or group of individuals?

"I don't computer much." So now you have to prove that he's got the skills to actually work the botnet himself, or have the case tossed out or not get to conviction. You'd have to watch the guy actually working. Is he a computer programmer at his day job? Does he have a degree in CS?

It takes a long time to build a solid case. How long did it take for the Unibomber to get to trial? The FBI searched his 10 x 10 shack for six months. What about Robert Pickton? They're still looking through his farm. Things don't get solved in 30 minutes with a pretty bow.

It's just funny

[talmai]

I'm from Slovenia and this year, it seems like we're in the news (and that's big, because we're sooooo small that any little thing about us in foreign media makes us go crazy). First the soccer thing, where we didn't loose to the USA and England, almost ending up in next round and now the biggest botnet seems to be coded here "on the sunny side of Alps". The last part is probably not good publicity but hey, even better, we're bad enough for FBI, how's that for some tiny little country where you can't event sneeze without delivering your germs either to Croatia or Italy.
Slovenians are climaxing right now. Somewhere in between "he [the hacker] should have known better, yet, he's a genius" and "letting FBI take him would mean the end of our sovereignty, our government should employ him".

I'll just sit back and enjoy watching. Comments by fellow citizens who don't know much about computers are just hilarious, I don't know about our national media, it's scary how poor the reporting is.

Re:Two years?

[dropadrop]

From what I've picked up working with "cyber crime units" in several countries I would say there are plenty of talented people there, but the departments are severely understaffed. It's a pretty ungrateful and badly payed job compared to what you could get elsewhere with the same level of know how... There's also the problem of what kind of loops they have to jump through to get information. Even if we as a company want them to look into a case (and they want to too) they might still have to go through a lot of legal work until we can provide any proof to base the investigation on. I've been surprised at how badly they are connected with other countries police forces, national CERT organizations seem to be good at connectivity though.

Re:Not much here yet...

[Unequivocal]

I'm not an expert in international law, but I think they could try him in Slovenia on charges relevant there (what illegal actions he took there) and then hand him off to Spain, rinse/repeat and onward to USA. No double jeopardy if the crimes are committed are new in each country (and not sure how each of these countries weighs double jeopardy in light of extradition after trial..)

Anyone with more info - please enlighten us.