Dutch police have formally charged a teenager who was running a botnet which spread thanks to the lad's knowledge of human stupidity.

The Dutch High-Tech Crime Unit arrested him and his 16-year-old brother, when they tried to flog the botnet to a 35-year-old Brazilian. Kaspersky Lab security expert Eddy Willems said the botnet was dubbed Shadow and at one point captured 150,000 machines. It was distributed on Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger instant messaging network by someone who got a message from someone who appeared to be one of their contacts.

The message would contain a link to another website, where the victim was asked to download a file. The file collects other instant messaging contacts and sends out more messages trying to enlarge the botnet. Shadow appears to use bits of malware code already circulating on the Internet. The teen used this alongside code what he wrote.

It makes you wonder if the idiots who fell for this rubbish shouldn't be arrested themselves, for the protection of society. X

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