EVENT: Guilty Plea

Defendant: Jason Michael Downey

KENTUCKY MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO OPERATING
“BOT-NET” OF THOUSANDS OF INFECTED COMPUTERS,
USING IT TO ATTACK OTHER NETWORKS

A Kentucky man pleaded guilty today in federal court to unlawful computer intrusion based on charges that he controlled thousands of infected computers with a “bot virus,” and used them to launch “denial of service attacks” on other computer networks, causing over $20,000 in damages, United States Attorney Stephen J. Murphy announced today. Murphy was joined in the announcement by Andrew G. Arena, FBI Special Agent in Charge.

Jason Michael Downey, 24, of Dry Ridge, Kentucky, entered the guilty plea in United States District Court before United States District Judge Nancy G. Edmunds. The information presented to the court at the time of the plea showed that from on or about June 18, 2004 through on or about September 5, 2004, Defendant was the owner of the Rizon.net Internet Relay Chat (or “IRC”) network. During that time defendant operated a "bot-network," that is, a network of computers infected with a virus that allowed defendant to control such computers, and cause them to attack other computers by sending high volumes of data to such target computers, and thereby causing damage by impairing the availability of such systems. In particular, Defendant caused a large number of computers to be infected with several kinds of "bot" viruses that would cause such computers to respond to commands that defendant issued. As a result, Defendant created a network of infected computers, or "bot-net," of up to 6,000 infected computers. An unspecified number of the infected computers were in the Eastern District of Michigan.

Thereafter, Defendant used the Internet Relay Chat network known as "Yotta-byte.net" to control and send commands to the bot-net in order to launch "denial of service" attacks on a variety of computer systems on the Internet, causing such systems to be overloaded with network data and unable to function properly and thereby impairing the operability of such systems. The losses caused by this conduct were over $20,000.

United States Attorney Stephen J. Murphy said, “These ‘bot-nets,’ where you have thousands of computers that can be commanded to do the bidding of one hacker, have the potential to do a great deal of damage. These cases can be hard to investigate, but the Detroit FBI’s cyber squad was clearly up to the task.”

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Downey faces up to 24 months’ imprisonment and a fine of up to $40,000. Downey will also be required to make full restitution to the victim computer owners in the amount of $ 21,110 to pay for the costs associated with repairing the consequences of the damage.

A sentencing hearing was set by Judge Edmunds for 2 p.m. on October 10, 2007. The case is being prosecuted by First Assistant United States Attorney Terrence Berg.

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