14 DAY TRIAL // Botnets aren't exactly hard to come by and can be quite dangerous as well as quite lucrative for their "owners." Being in control of even a few thousand machines means you can send out millions of spam email messages, steal bank accounts, Google or Facebook credentials, even things as inoffensive as DDoS attacks.
But maybe it's not as lucrative as you'd believe - one US hacker is going to serve 30 months in prison for renting his 72,000-strong botnet for as little as $1,500, €1,184.
Joshua Schichtel, 30, from Phoenix Arizona, was sentenced for computer-related crimes last year and was sentenced today.
He is said to have sold access to those computers to people wanting to install malware and pleaded guilty of one case where he was paid $1,500 for this. Probably not the biggest payday to go to jail for two and a half years over.