Teen hacks 30,000 PCs

[Dodomeki]

Jun 25, 2010
Teen hacks 30,000 PCs

<!-- by line --> By Khushwant Singh, Court Reporter
<!-- end by line -->
<!-- end left side bar -->WHILE studying for his O levels in 2005, Ng Han Xian hacked into as many as 30,000 computers to circulate advertisements and earned US$35,000 (S$48,700). He was jailed two months on Thursday to obtaining illegal access to the programs and data in the computers. Ng, now 21, pleaded guilty earlier this month. A district court heard that the teen had fled to China in November 2007 and was arrested on his return in January this year.

Investigators discovered that he was hosting a botnet - a term comprising parts of 'robot' and 'network'. It refers to a group of computers, known as bots or zombies that have been infected with a program that allows unauthorised access by the hacker. In August 2005, he also signed up as an affiliate of Zangocash and Gammacash. These are adware companies that earn money by directing Internet traffic to online advertisements.

For every adware software Ng surreptitiously installed to allow advertisements to pop up and every website visited by computers in his botnet, Ng received a fee from the adware firms. By September 2005, he told police he had received close to US$35,000. Although a fine could be imposed for the offence, District Judge Roy Neighbour said that in this case 'the threshold for a custodial sentence had been breached'. Ng could have been jailed for up to two years as well as fined up to $5,000.

 

[da dick]

i hate spam king wannabes. cause more economic/financial damage than murderers. should execute in the most bloody way, or castrate(like murders, they're mostly male) them.

but i feel a bit sad for him 'cause he chickened out and ran back home after running off to china. but then again, the stupid beng ran out of money after wasting it all on china mei meis. which is still damn sad.