Before I post the article here, I’d just like to point out that this is the case that Adaera has been working on for 4 years now, and we finally have results. So Congratulations to Killanet Technology, and to Adaera for her hard work on this incident. Adaera’s smile when I came home from work today more than made up for all of the time spent sifting through logs, and talking on the phone with the FBI, and the frustration that I felt in thinking that the case was not going to go anywhere. I love you Tami, and thank you for your perseverance, and in making sure that this kiddie is where he belongs… behind bars.

Source
McGREGOR W. SCOTT
United States Attorney
Eastern District of California
Sacramento
501 I Street, Suite 10-100
Sacramento, CA 95814

NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

INDICTMENT AND ARREST FOR COMPUTER HACKING

SACRAMENTO — United States Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced today the arrest of GREG KING, 21, of Fairfield, California, and the unsealing of an Indictment returned on September 27, 2007, charging KING with four counts of electronic transmission of codes to cause damage to protected computers.

This case is the product of an extensive investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

According to Assistant United States Attorney Matthew D. Segal, a prosecutor with the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office who is handling the case, the Indictment alleges that KING used a “botnet” to attack computer servers. A botnet is a network of infected computers that, unbeknownst to their owners, are compromised by a hacker and programmed to respond to a hacker’s commands. The infected computers are referred to as “bots,” “zombies,” or “drones.” According to documents filed with the court, KING allegedly controlled over seven thousand such “bots” and used them to conduct multiple distributed denial of service attacks against websites of two businesses. In a distributed denial of service attack, a hacker directs a large number of infected computers (“bots”) to flood a victim computer with information and thereby disable the target computer. On the Internet, KING was also known as “Silenz, Silenz420, sZ, GregK, and Gregk707.”

When agents went to arrest KING at his residence this morning, KING went out the back door of the residence carrying a laptop computer, depositing it in the bushes in the backyard. Agents obtained a warrant to search KING’s backyard and seized the computer. KING was arrested and is expected to appear before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in Sacramento at 2:00 p.m. today.

The maximum statutory penalty for a violation of transmission of damaging code to a protected computer is ten years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. However, the actual sentence will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables, and any applicable statutory sentencing factors.

The charges are only allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

You can also read about it Here and Here (You can also download and read a full copy of the Unsealed Indictment at this link).