FBI arrests three botnet operators

Simon Aughton Read more October 7, 2009

The FBI has revealed the first successes of a search and destroy operation against the botnets that infect millions of computers worldwide.

Together with the US Department of Justice, the law enforcement agency today announced that three so-called bot-herders have been arrested as a result of Operation Bot Roast.

James C Brewer of Arlington, Texas, is alleged to have operated a botnet that infected a Chicago area hospital and tens of thousands of computers worldwide. Jason Michael Downey of Covington, Kentucky, has been charged for using botnets to send a high volume of traffic as part of denial-of-service attacks. Finally, Robert Alan Soloway of Seattle, Washington, is alleged to have used a large botnet network and spammed tens of millions of unsolicited email messages to advertise his website, selling services and products.

A botnet is a collection of compromised computers under the remote command and control of a criminal bot-herder, the FBI explained. It said that owners of the compromised computers are unknowing and unwitting victim. So far the investigation has identified over a million infected PCs.

‘They have unintentionally allowed unauthorised access and use of their computers as a vehicle to facilitate other crimes, such as identity theft, denial of service attacks, phishing, click fraud, and the mass distribution of spam and spyware,’ the FBI said in a statement. ‘Because of their widely distributed capabilities, botnets are a growing threat to national security, the national information infrastructure, and the economy.’

FBI Assistant Director for the Cyber Division James Finch urged PC users to ensure that they regularly update anti-virus software, install a firewall, use strong passwords and adopt good email and Web security practices by following the FBI’s own guidelines.

‘An attacker gains control by infecting the computer with a virus or other malicious code and the computer continues to operate normally,’ he warned. ‘Citizens can protect themselves from botnets and the associated schemes by practising strong computer security habits to reduce the risk that your computer will be compromised.’