NZ Botnet Teen Faces Extradition

New details have been released about the New Zealand teen who is one of the most recent, and youngest, snared by the FBI in an operation dubbed Bot Roast II. Multiple arrests and convictions have come from this FBI sting.

Owen Walker, an 18 year old from Whitianga, New Zealand, is suspected of creating malicious software that took control of over a million computers. The FBI also believes AKILL, Walker's online handle or nick name, is "the ringleader of an elite international botnet coding group" and has caused "more than $25 million in economic loss". If evidence is found that warrants charges, Walker could be charged either in New Zealand or extradited and charged in the United States.

So far eight others, here in the U.S., have been charged in relation to the FBI's investigation of Walker's software. Three of them have been sentenced with jail terms of 12 to 47 months.

Botnets are comprised of computers which have been infected with malicious software. These computers are also known as "zombies" and can be used to for various illegal activities. Some "zombies" are used for phishing scams, identify theft, spam, network attacks, and scanning for vulnerable computers and websites which they can then install the botnet software on. People who contol these botnets are known as bot herders. Some bot herders have control of millions of computers. Currently it is estimated that there are approximately 150 million botnet infected computers.