Conspirator in the Shadow Botnet Case Charged

We previously reported on the arrest of a teenage Dutch, who had created the Shadow botnet. The Dutch High Tech Crime Unit and the FBI worked together to solve the case of the malicious network, which is reported to be responsible for the infection of over 100,000 machines.

The Brazilian conspirator in the Shadow botnet case was also charged by a federal grand jury in New Orleans "with one count of conspiracy to cause damage to computers worldwide." The 35-year-old Leni de Abreu Neto had an understanding with Nordin Nasir, the 19-year-old Dutch who created the botnet, to sell the malicious network to a third party, as the Department of Justice informs. They intended to trade Shadow for €25,000, which is approximately $37,000.

The maximum penalty the Brazilian man from Taubate faces is of five years of prison time. He may also be kept in supervised release for up to three years after his sentence is up. Also, the presumable conspirator will have to pay a financial penalty of at least $250,000. The sum could get to be much larger than that, but this detail will be settled after an evaluation of the victims' loss and Neto's gain is performed.

The victims of the Shadow Botnet were unwary of the fact that their machines had been transformed into "zombies," which is the actual term used to describe a computer that has been subdued by a masterbot. The affected computers were then used to send spam emails to as many recipients as possible. Since the body of the emails frequently consisted of a piece of hidden malicious software, which was installed by many people without second thought, the botnet grew increasingly larger.

Now that the second man was charged, while the one believed to have created the botnet is already incarcerated, the trial is soon to begin. While Nasir will be judged in the Netherlands, law enforcement agencies are waiting for Neto's extradition to the United States, where he will be prosecuted with help from the Cyber Section of the Brazilian Federal Police.