LSDigital

IRL Name: 
Robert Matthew Bentley
Biography: 

A US-based hacker sentenced to 41 months in jail for breaking into corporate computers in Europe and making them part of a money-generating botnet. In addition, he was ordered to perform three years of supervised release once his prison time is over and to pay $65,000 in restitution, according to federal prosecutors in Pensacola, Florida.

In March, Bentley, who sometimes went by the alias LSDigital, pleaded guilty to two felony counts related to his botnet activities, which inflicted more than $150,000 worth of damage on Newell Rubbermaid. Starting as early as December 2006, Bentley and several unnamed co-conspirators installed customized bots on hundreds of the company’s computers. The malware generated so much traffic on Rubbermaid’s servers that its network stopped functioning.

New infections from the attack were being detected as recently as March, four months after Bentley was arrested. Federal agents continue to investigate the uncharged suspects. At least one of them lived in Philadelphia name unreleased

Federal prosecutors began their case after the Metropolitan Police Computer Crime Unit in London fielded a complaint from Rubbermaid representatives in Europe. According to court documents, Bentley and his cronies generated “thousands of dollars” by installing adware from DollarRevenue.com on the infected machines.

Facts

Was a botnet owner

Plead out rather than stand trial

Rumors

Generated “thousands of dollars”

References