Mirai Hackers' Sentence Includes No Jail Time

Three men charged with creating and managing the Mirai botnet have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act and have been sentenced to a five-year period of probation and 2,500 hours of community service. They also have been ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $127,000 and have voluntarily abandoned significant amounts of cryptocurrency seized during the course of the investigation.

Paras Jha, 22, of Fanwood, N.J.; Josiah White, 21, of Washington, Pa.; and Dalton Norman, 22, of Metairie, La., were sentenced after cooperating extensively with the FBI. As part of their sentences, the three must continue to cooperate with the FBI, law enforcement, and researchers on cybercrime and cybersecurity matters. According to court documents, the defendants have provided assistance that substantially contributed to active complex cybercrime investigations and broader defensive efforts by both law enforcement and cybersecurity researchers.

Jha and Norman also pleaded guilty to the same charge in relation to the Clickfraud botnet. The defendants' involvement with Mirai ended in the fall of 2016, when Jha posted the source code for Mirai on a criminal forum. Noting the defendant's relative youth, Jeffery Peterson, special agent in charge of FBI's Anchorage Field Office, said, "This case demonstrates our commitment to hold criminals accountable while encouraging offenders to choose a different path to apply their skills."

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