Department of Defense Network Security Crackdown
The top commander of the Department of Defense network operations just ordered a crackdown on security. According to an article by NetworkWorld on January 16,2006, Lt. General Charles Croom is quoted as saying, “The attacks are coming from everywhere and they’re getting better.” His talk was the keynote address at the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Conference held on January 9 – 14, 2005 in Clearwater, Florida. The event is sponsored by the Defense Cyber Crime Center and the Joint Task Force. Over 500 computer crime specialists from the FBI and the military attended the event.
The crackdown was related to a recent arrest of a “Computer Virus Broker” named Jeanson James Ancheta. On further investigation, a Department of Justice press release from Nov 3rd, 2005 offered the following information on this incident, “In the first prosecution of its kind in the nation, a well-known member of the “botmaster underground” has been indicted on federal charges for profiting from the use of “botnets” – armies of computers that are under the control of the botmaster and are used to launch destructive attacks or to send huge quantities of spam across the Internet.
Jeanson James Ancheta, 20, of Downey, California, was arrested this morning by special agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Ancheta was indicted yesterday in two separate conspiracies, as well as substantive charges of attempting to cause damage to protected computers, causing damage to computers used by the federal government in national defense, accessing protected computers without authorization to commit fraud and money laundering.”
Some recent news. Ancheta pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to violate anti-spam and computer misuse laws, and fraud and will serve from 4-6 years in prison, under the plea agreement – plus heavy fines.
