I hope you get what you deserve. I'm a computer fanatic, so i really have no sympathy for hackers. I can't believe people are telling you good luck. What if you had brought down a computer that just so happened to contain critical info or helped support someones life? You might say that the bot wasnt designed to do that but since when has any piece of software worked as programmers intended it to? Its noble that you did turn yourself in though and i will give you props on that but man just think next time.

 

I'm a computer fanatic too, no ones condoning his actions. He did what he did and he's paying the consequences. What are they supposed to say? See you in hell you *****? He's been around here a little more than a couple months so most have known him for awhile so there's nothing wrong with wishing him well during his stay in federal pound me in the *** prison.

 

Given the size of the bot network sint3k was running, I doubt the hospital was a target. Rather it just got sucked into the network.

Bot networks are basically self replicating, or many of them are. You write a virus and infect a number of computers, those infect computers pass it on. Some viruses look email themselves to everyone in your email address book, others scan the local network for vuleranble computers and install themselves on those computers etc. A common case is some guy takes his laptop somewhere, it gets infect, he brings it back to work and then the virus attacks his work network.

So what Botherders do is infect a wave, let it spread, and just sit there. Once a computer is infect it connects to a specific server and listens for orders from the botherder, in this case sint3k. Sint3k likely never even checked to see what he hacked, rather all he did was know the rough size of his network and issue it commands.

These networks have value, they can used to send spam. Like sint3k may have told someone "If you pay me 10 grand I'll send out 1 million viagra emails" or some crap like that. In other cases they can be used to denial of service attacks.

One of the more famous attacks was a few Super Bowls ago some hackers called up a bunch of major gambling websites and said "Pay us X million or we'll shut you down over the SuperBowl". The websites told them to **** off. The week before the SuperBowl all these botnetworks (tens of thousands of computers) all had their computers start trying to load the gambling websites off and on. So like 10 thousand computers would try to load the website, then 10 seconds later 10 thousand more would, etc. It overloaded the servers, no one could log in and place bets, and those sites lost millions in potential revenue.

So yeah I'm curious as to how much sint3k made.

oshia86
Not to defend hackers, but they do prove a valuable role sometimes (albiet unknowingly). I work in a medical research hospital and we never have enough computing power for research projects (not enough money in the budget). So we used techinques developed by botherders to turn all the staff computers into a bot network. Those botherders had gotten really good at making viruses that were undetectable. They did their thing without lagging up the computer (if you lag up the computer people figure out they're infected and go get it fixed) and all that. I actually used a lot of 'hacker' code to make a 500+ node parallel cluster for processing neural signals. When the staff member is at their computer working it doesn't do anything, but it detects then the keyboard and mouse go idle and then starts hammering its way through data and sending the results to a server. So rather than send spam our network does medical research.

We also have some dedicated cluster servers for the heavy stuff.

 

Well i dont wish the op any harm in prison and hope hes just in and out and thats it. I did notice that my post came off a little to angry so i apologize for sounding like a dick. I do realize some of the principals used in hacking are useful but hacking of this nature is not a respectful way to make a living.

 

you did not sound like a dick. Sint broke the law and got caught. His punishment will deter him in the future, I would imagine, from doing it again. The victims are the ones who suffered here. Anybody who has had something stolen or vandalized or whatever knows what it is to lose something to someone who didn't care what collateral damage occured. Bust out a window, rip a dashboard out that costs somebody a few thousand in time and money to fix just so they can get $50 from a radio? That is weak in my book. I don't see eye to eye with Sint on, well, pretty much anything, he seems to to be a bully in my eyes, but I don't wish him any harm in jail. The purpose will be served, he won't likely do it again, but I don't wish him any luck either. He made his choices, as we all do, and he pays the price for his actions, same as we all do eventually. I do wish that his experience is just unpleasant enough so that he refrains from activitity that might land him there again, but nothing worse than that. Best outcome that can be expected for both society and him.

 

damn,...this is heavy...

good luck

 

sorry iam with them he broke the law and he has to pay for what he did, i feel no pity for him at all

 

they arent saying have pity on him.... they are saying people shouldnt wish worse than what he is getting...

im sure he will get what he has coming... no reason for him to get more or less...

 

If you really messed with a hospital that is messed up.. I've done some silly things online as I'm a freelance programmer, That would be how I made $31,000 + last month.

Was any money involved or what?

 

Later.

 

Also remember what Sint is doing he is self serrendering he's not running he's doing the right thing. will leave it like that.

 

The real victims here are not so much the hospital and such. But are his wife and kids! They are the ones that will suffer for his actions the most. The hospitals and the other governmental agencies are supposed to have software to keep this stuff from happening. Just keep his family in mind for the remainder of his prison sentence. As they will be struggling without their father and husband for some time.

 

anyone know why instead of just stopping.. he turned himself in?

 

Did it say he turned himself in? Other than the fact he just said he's turning himself in today to start his sentence I didn't read that he turned himself in. I was under the impression he got caught.

 

seems he turned himself in to me.. i dont believe he was caught...

thats why i asked why he didnt just stop?

 

Common guys, no one took Law in College????

He was caught, he owes the Hospital 4500 for the expenses of their dumb a$$ IT team trying to figure out where all their bandwidth had gone.

He self surrendered, which means after his court date he was given a time to appear at a police station to be taken into custody. Self surrendering just means he showed up on time, and entered jail/prison like he was ordered to and didn't run form the law.

Also I agree that the hospital/government computer systems around this country are very easy to hack into and at risk for such an attack. All sint did was set up a botnet for fun, the bot worked well and continued to search out for more hosts to infect. A large computer network with no/little security, ie the hospital, would be an obvious choice for the bot to attack.

 

what would a bot, such as the one he created be designed for.... what kind of thing would it be infecting? i know computers.. but would it crash them, do annoying pop ups...what?

any personal gain he was getting from this?

 

He mentioned that he is going to a Minimum security facility in another thread. So maybe his time wont be so bad. I'd be worried about life after prison. Getting a job without being a convicted felon these days is hard enough. He obviously has some computer/programer skills so maybe freelance. Losing some rights sucks too say bye bye to your 2nd amandment. and other rights depending on your state.
He'll be paying for this long after he has done his 3 years in the can.


Lemons12 look at post #23 05CherryGXP listed a few ways you can make money with bot nets.

 

****, my buddy got caught doing worse then a bot and he only did weekends for 3 years. A good lawyer is worth the money, but they are going crazy on computer crimes now. I can remember when "Mafia boy" hacked Yahoo, Amazon, AtLaw, eBay and Dell, caused millions lost and he only got 8 months in a youth detention cause he was 17. So the moral is do all your crimes before you are 18 lol

 

Its not that hard to get a job with a record. Good luck in there man.