Hacker gets 41 months Jail in USA

Following an investigation which began in December 2006, after marketing firm Newell Rubbermaid notified the London (England, UK) Metropolitan Police's Computer Crime Unit (CCU) about an intrusion on its network, Robert Matthew Bentley, a 21 year old male of Panama City, Florida was sentenced on Wednesday, June 11th to 41 months in jail, a $65,000 fine and 3 years state  supervision on his release. 

Robert Bentley was indicted by a federal grand jury in Pensacola, Florida in November 2007. The indictment resulted from a criminal investigation by the United States Secret Service, primarily involving the London (England, UK) Resident Office, the Paris (France) Field Office, the Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, USA) Field Office, the Seattle (Washington, USA) Field Office, the Jacksonville (Florida, USA) Field Office, the Tallahassee (Florida, USA) Resident Office, the Panama City (Florida, USA) Field Office, the Santa Ana (California, USA) Resident Office, the Los Angeles (California, USA) Field Office, the Wilmington (Delaware, USA) Field Office, and the CERT Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA). The US Secret Service worked the investigation together with the Finland National Bureau of Investigation, the London Metropolitan Police, the Westminster (California, USA) Police Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, USA) Field Office. The trail eventualy led the investigators to Florida where Robert Bentley was using computers to control the BotNet and coordinate attacks.

Robert Bentley received a commission from a company called DollarRevenue for every installation of advertising software that was used to trigger unwanted pop-ups exploiting software vulernabilities in operating systems. In many cases this is possible because home and business users do load install published service packs and patches on their computers. In December 2007, DollarRevenue was fined €1 million ($US1.54 million) in the Netherlands, one of the largest fines ever levied in Europe for adware. The investigation found that hackers were paid €0.15 for each individual installation of DollarRevenue software on computers in Europe and $US0.25 for those within the US.

Robert Bentley and his accomplices drove so much data through the hijacked Rubbermaid coputers that it almost brought their network to a halt. The damages cost an estimated $US150,000 to fix.

In March 2008, Robert Bentley pleaded the guilty to conspiracy to commit computer fraud and computer fraud for using a Botnet to install Adware advertising software on PCs located throughout Europe without permission.. On June 11th 2008, he was sentenced in the US district court of northern Florida.

United States Attorney Gregory R. Miller observed, “The identification, indictment, and conviction of Bentley constitutes a significant success in a complex international investigation, and resulted from the outstanding cooperation of the many participating law enforcement agencies. The use of “botnets” – a series of computers covertly controlled by Bentley and his co-conspirators to accomplish the intrusion of victim computer systems – is a major focus of computer-related criminal investigations worldwide. Botnets are responsible for much of the malicious activity conducted on the internet. “Botherders” or “Botmasters” operate within a group of computer hackers on a global scale, making this computer crime one of the most pervasive forms of organized criminal activity plaguing law enforcers in this country and abroad.”