Arizona Hacker Sentenced to 30 Months

Was selling access to infected computers to add malware

A 30-year-old Phoenix man was sentenced Thursday to 30 months in prison for using botnets and selling access to them, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

Joshua Schichtel, allegedly connected to a group of hackers who used denial-of-service attacks to target businesses, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Schichtel was allegedly a member of the so-called DDOS mafia, a group of hackers that attacked websites on behalf of a business owner, but 2004 charges in California were dropped because prosecutors didn't file an indictment by the required deadline.

He pleaded guilty on Aug. 17, 2011, in Washington, D.C., to one count of attempting to cause damage to multiple computers without authorization by the transmission of programs, codes or commands, a violation of the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.