‘Mariposa’ Botnet Authors May Avoid Jail Time
Summary: Three Spanish men were arrested for allegedly building the Mariposa botnet, a network of more than 12 million hacked PCs rented out to criminals and used to steal data from over 800,000 victims in at least 190 countries. Spanish authorities say the men may never see jail time even if convicted, because Spanish law does not criminalize owning and operating a botnet or distributing malware.
Why it matters: Spanish Civil Guard Captain Cesar Lorenzana said it is 'almost impossible' to be sent to prison for these crimes in Spain, so prosecutors must prove identity theft rather than botnet operation - and the three accused are free on their own recognizance while the sites holding stolen victim data remain online.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
- Topics
- Malware
- Related
- ARTEX and beyond: AI-enabled penetration testing platforms Cyber Risks · Nov 13, 2026Fake GTA 6 download goes after Steam logins and crypto wallet data Cyber Risks · Nov 13, 2026Operation Endgame Takes Down Gootloader, CastleRAT and StealC Servers, Seizes 6.4M Stolen Logins Cyber Risks · Nov 13, 2026