"US authorities arrested a man for allegedly hijacking thousands of computers to launch spam attacks in what officials say is the first prosecution of its kind," reportss AFP. "Among the computers that Jeanson Ancheta, 20, is accused of infecting with malicious software are computers at the Weapons Division of the sensitive US Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake in California."
The allegation is that Ancheta controlled botnets -- Windows PCs compromised by Trojans -- and hired them out to spammers etc. Also, according to AFP: "Prosecutors say Ancheta was an affiliate of several different advertising service companies, which paid him a commission based on how many computers he infected with so-called adware. In all, he allegedly made about 60,000 dollars in advertising affiliate proceeds by causing the installation of adware on about 400,000 computers, they said."
