Calif. Man Sentenced to 3 Years for ‘Botnet’ Attack

Christopher Maxwell, a 21-year-old California man, on Friday was sentenced to three years in prison for his part in a computer attack that victimized tens of thousands of machines, some of which belonged to the U.S. Defense Department, Seattle’s Northwest Hospital, and the Colton Unified School District in California, the Associated Press reports via the New York Post.

Maxwell, a resident of Vacaville, Calif., was also sentenced to three years of probation, according to the AP.

In May, Maxwell entered guilty pleas on federal charges of conspiracy to intentionally cause damage to a protected computer and conspiracy to commit computer fraud, the AP reports.

U.S. District Court Judge Marsha J. Pechman said Maxwell’s sentencing would serve as “deterrence for all those youths out there who are squirreled away in their basements hacking,” according to the AP.

Steve Bauer, Maxwell’s lawyer, attempted to get Maxwell off with no more than probation and community service because he said the man had no criminal record and had no intention to allow his attack to reach the scale that it did, the AP reports.

Two other juveniles were accused along with Maxwell of perpetrating the “botnet” attacks, in which networks of computers are overtaken by hackers for the purpose of aiding attacks, to put suspect Web advertising software on victims’ computers, according to the AP.

Maxwell and his cohorts are thought to have raked in some $100,000 as a result of the botnet attacks, the AP reports.

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