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Feds Arrest Spam Network Member

The FBI has arrested a member of a spybot network in Downey, according to the agency, in a crackdown on "botnets"--computers which are infected with viruses and used to launch spam or hacker attacks on other computers. The arrest of Jeanson James Ancheta is the first prosecution of the kind in the nation. The FBI alleges that Ancheta is a member of the "botmaster underground", which infected and sold access to compromised computers. Ancheta is charged with writing malicious computer code and selling access to infected computers to launch computer attacks, causing damage to computers used by the federal government in national defense, accessing protected computers without authorization, and committing fraud and money laundering. Among other machines infected by Ancheta's software was the Weapons Division of the United States Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake and the Defense Information Systems Agency. Ancheta faces a maximum sentence of 50 years in prison, if convicted.