http://finance.news.com.au/story/0,10166,18562649-31037,00.html AAP March 22, 2006 A VICTORIAN man has been charged over a series of high profile international internet hacking attacks. The 22-year-old was arrested in Melbourne early today after a joint state and federal investigation into the sophisticated attacks on internet relay chat (IRC) servers in Australia in 2005, the federal police said. The Belgian Federal Computer Crime unit tipped Australian authorities off to the attacks, which used remotely controlled computer networks known as botnets. The US, Singapore and Austria also were affected by the hacking attacks on Australian IRC servers. Botnets are made up of bots, which spread by taking advantage of common vulnerabilities on unprotected computers, and can attack servers in their tens of thousands. Once on a host computer, most often personal home machines, they lay dormant and wait for a remote command. NSW, Victorian and Australian Federal Police, as well as the Australian High Tech Crime Centre (AHTCC) carried out the investigation. The man was charged with using a telecommunications network with intention to commit a serious offence, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. He will face Melbourne Magistrate's Court on Friday. AHTCC director Kevin Zuccato said botnets had been linked to unlawful activity. "Bots and bot networks continue to be of concern and are linked ... to a range of other malicious activity including identity theft and spam," Mr Zuccato said. He urged people to safeguard their computers with anti-virus software and firewalls. _________________________________ InfoSec News v2.0 - Coming Soon! http://www.infosecnews.org
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