John Schiefer, 27, pleaded guilty to using “botnets” to access protected computers to conduct fraud, disclose illegally intercepted electronic communications, wire fraud and bank fraud. United States District Judge A. Howard Matz also ordered him to pay a $2,500 fine.

 

Schiefer admitted to installing a malicious computer code to the zombie computers, and capturing electronic information being sent from those computers to financial institutions, including PayPal. This granted Schiefer access to usernames and passwords, which he then used to make purchases.

 

Schiefer’s employer Jason Calcanis from Mahalo wrote on calcanis.com that the company was not aware that he was convicted for infecting hundreds of thousands of computers when they hired him, and that Schiefer successfully passed all their interviews.

 

“However, Mark (Mark Jeffrey, the company’s CTO) screw up by not doing a simple Google search on John’s name,” Calcanis wrote. “If Mark had, he would have easily found out about these crimes, we would have never hired John, and I would not be writing this letter. Why would we even take the risk of hiring a felon hacker?”

 

John Schiefer also admitted to defrauding an Internet advertising company by installing the company’s programs on 150,000 zombie computers, without the owners’ consent. Schiefer was also ordered to pay $20,000 in restitution to the company.