The mastermind of a botnet scheme has become the first person to be sentenced to four years in prison, for a crime involving stealing data under federal wiretap statutes.

John Schiefer, a 27-year-old Los Angeles resident and former security researcher, pleaded guilty to charges that he was involved in stealing usernames, passwords and financial data from more than 250,000 compromised systems, and then installing adware on the botnet that he and accomplices had devised, reports ComputerWorld.com.

Documents filed in the case said Schiefer and his accomplices had sifted through the purloined documents looking for usernames and passwords to PayPal and online bank accounts. When they got what they needed, they used the information to make purchases and transfer funds out of the accounts.

For more on this botnet case:
- check out this ComputerWorld.com article

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