Hacker pleaded guilty after infecting 250 000 computers
A hacker has pleaded guilty to infecting hundreds of thousands of computers with malware in order to steal money from Paypal accounts. He could spend 60 years in prison and face a US$1.75 million fine. John Schiefer, 26, admitted that he and some associates developed malware that allowed them to create botnet armies of as many as 250,000 computers (!). Schiefer was able to collect information sent from the infected computers, including usernames and passwords for Paypal accounts. He and his associates were then able to make purchases using the Paypal accounts. They also shared the password information with others. This is the first prosecution of a hacker for this type of activity, according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. The Federal Bureau of Investigation pursued the case.
Schiefer says he also found Paypal usernames and passwords using malware that could access usernames filed in a secure storage area on the computers. The malware would send that information to Schiefer, who used it to access the accounts. Schiefer also acknowledged fraudulently earning more than $19,000 from a Dutch Internet advertising agency that hired him as a consultant. He was supposed to install the company’s programs on computers after receiving consent from computer owners. Instead, he and his associates installed it on 150,000 computers that were infected with his malware. Schiefer is scheduled to appear in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Nov. 28 and be arraigned on Dec. 3.
Source: PC World, Techweek
Comments(55)
why cant people just do one big score and call it a day
I’m back
60 yrs?
whats wrong with the electric chair?
big black tyrone is waiting for him in jail.
Just inject the twat and let him die. I don’t need pricks like him stealing my hard earned money. What a waste of obvious talent! And a waste of a skin!
The electric chair would be too lenient for this mutherf*cker. Hang him from his balls and have Bubba work on his ass. That’ll teach him to infect ppl’s computers.
Actually, the best way to finish that would be to infect him with some malware…
And he is NOT a hacker (period)
Them 60 years will fly by.
it’s not a hacker but a cracker -.-’
WeII if u are dumb enough to install the malware u deserve to be scammed
damn… hope he rots and gets a lot of butt fun with 12 black men…
60 years it’s too much =(
In my country a guy that raped and killed 3 young woman was convicted, he then appealed the sentence.
Now, my country as a funny law: There’s a small limit to the time you can spend in custody when awaiting the appeal trial (even though he was considered guilty!)
So he is out in the streets! And when (if) he gets convicted again, he will be facing no more than 25 years in jail (from which they will discount the time he already was in prison) : since it’s the limit.
Now I read about this guy getting life imprisonment for stealing money… kind of makes my blood boil…
@12
What an idiotic comment. Just because someone isn’t savy enough to keep malware out doesn’t give jerks like him the right to dive in and steal their information. Even the best informed and best protected can still end up fighting new forms of malware.
They also need to rewrite the article, the guy is by no means a hacker. That’s an insult to true hackers.
@14
it’s not that the punishment for this jerk is to much .. the punishment rape and/or murder is too light.
Why should he be punished at all? Isn’t he just following the American Dream?
Another Jew making money the sleazy way.
Omg I think dont have my pass
Alright guys, so he did some cracking (He is NOT a HACKER, he is a CRACKER!, there is a difference!)
Yeah, no bad deed should go unpunished, but you guys are talking about the death sentence here, that’s not right, he didn’t kill anyone, no raped (physically), or molested…..
The time he will serve is a lot! He WILL die in prison, he will be 86 by the time he comes out…. I think that’s already very harsh.
Rather have him do some time, then, ban him from touching a computational device ever again…
Just doing that will be enough to make him an example of… but also, allow him to live, and try to mend his ways.
@ Lee Welton
You are a racist…. I have some friends that will come visit you…
It’s not difficult to find your IP, and GEO track it!
he’s a thief*
what a disgrace to hackers
“..earning more than $19,000..”
Damn, that guy is good.
@ Kwagsch,
He is a Hacker/Cracker.
Him & his associates programmed the malware to duplicate and send itself to other computers, how do you think he managed that?
hacker; a microcomputer user who attempts to gain unauthorized access to proprietary computer systems.
By the way $19,000/60ypr ~= 3.6 cents per hour. I can only hope the guy likes men and rough love.
@21 Kwagsch
good luck searching through a whole town/country, which will be the only thing you will find out about him with an ip..
that is a sentence only handed out in america, with the biggest jail population in the world.
i jus hope when he goes to jail , that bubba ,HACKS HIS AZZ, and CRACKS HIS BALLS
, JUS WHAT HE DESERVES!!!!!
I hope he enjoyed his money. He’ll need another kind of currency where he is going!
The world is falling down and all you care about is justice in the form of rape. My country; America, you are one twisted mofo.
Make him fix 250′000 computers infected by malware for free… that should take him a fair amount of time.
You do realize the only reason his jail sentence is so long is because of the amount of people he stole from right? It gets compounded, as does his fine.
Oh but remember, we are all “stealing” crooks just like him
Us terrible,terrible Pirates that we are ! tch tch
@otli
Your country’s laws suck. Why don’t you people elect legislators that will keep your criminals in jail where they belong??
@Kwagsch
This sentence he has received will also make an example out of him while also keeping us safe from having him out on the street near computers again.
Your idea to let him out and just make sure he doesn’t go near a PC again is impossible to monitor without watching him 24/7. We can do that while he is in prison though, so that is where he stays.
Does anyone know which Dutch company hired him?
Just another useless American. Let them all rot in prison, where they will all get what they have coming to them.
As stated above and by definition, we are those criminals.
In America, ignorance of the law is no excuse. You could be committing a crime right now and at the same time be completely unaware.
WELL let me start by saying all of u that want this GUY raped in prison r just as bad as the rapest IN PRISON ffs DONT ANY OF KNOW A THING ABOUT THE REAL WORLD OR ARE YOU ALL JUST IN YOUR PC WORLD the last major haxor THAT DID GET caught was the guy that STOLE the MILLIEUM edition of XP before IT WAS RELEASED and posted on NET as FREE DOWNLOAD after there world wide search costing who knows how much they found and charged him THEN THE REAL world comes in BILL GATES HIRES HIM THE WHOLE DEAL wages super holidays now any one who thinks this guy will spend more than 3 months in MINIMUM security (NO RAPEST THERE IM SORRY FOR ALL U WHO LIKE THAT SORT OF THING)and realesed BECAUSE SOME BIG pc COMPANY will hire him to AND HIS M8s PROVE ME WRONG dec 3rd i sure was date for VERDICT!!!! p.s DONT JUDGE SOME ONE TILL YOU HAVE WALK A MILE IN THERE SHOES
+1 Dylz
@dylzozboy
Hopefully you will come back to this site in March of next year, and we can take pleasure in laughing in your face as your wonderful friend continues his life behind bars.
He will sit there without a job offer from Microsoft or any other company. Please do return for that happy day. Thanks.
Somehow i don’t see an 86 year old hacker paying a fine thats in the millions feck that he’ll be deed or defo dying
We can’t let him have more time in prison than a rapist, right? So, we should just let this fellow go, with the stipulation that he must promise not to do it again. That should really teach him a lesson.
Or, just maybe, the prison terms for rapists should be raised so that when a piece of crap like this only gets 60 years, people don’t cry about rapists getting less time.
@41
ill be hear and then U will see that u r 1 of the ppl im talking about GET OUT SIDE m8 see the REAL world…….
p.s. waiting…
no wonder us prisons are overcrowded lol.. 60 yrs for that haha.. u should start using death penalties more often (not in this case though
)
hang him!
his mother must be proud
Kwagsch,
So you are saying jews are a race?? The guy may be anti-semitic, but not racist.
Learn your words, idiot!
why don’t some people learn the meaning of words before they make comments?
just so many people don’t know the diference between hackers and crackers and they lecture the rest with their stupidity.
For everyone talking about the harsh sentence he got … you do know that he hasn’t been sentenced yet, right? “He could spend 60 years in prison and face a US$1.75 million fine.”
He’s guilty, but he hasn’t gone through the sentencing phase yet.
@X Actually, China has the largest prision population, not the United States. China only counts the sentenced prisoners and not those held pre-trial detainees and those held in “administrative” detention in their figures. The total figure for China is about 2.5 million (dig down in the stats .. most use King’s College at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/rel/icps/home.html for reference.
@50
You do realize China has a much bigger population right?
I say fair play to the hacker, and yes it was hacking an not cracking !
Any body who connects to millions if not billions of computers on a network and not protected in the right way should stick to a playstation or similar toy.
60 years is way to much for the nature of the crime though even if it was oragnaised as peado’s only get months in jail
This guy is a true caca head. Why steal and infe ct computers. It makes me mad that someone even wants to do that to people. I bet he would be pissed himself if it was happening to him, but people still do it to others. That is being a true caca head, may he rot in hell with lots of cacas! PEACE, from the BeAsT!
hacker:
http://www.stallman.org/articles/on-hacking.html
This guy is also a security consultant! talk about anti-trust.
He worked for my company before i got there. He wasn’t a security consultant. He was a guy we hired to help carry cable and do remedial tasks. Like click next when installing windows. He is a turd. He was kind of slow in the head also.