Cybercrime arrests by FBI 'a tiny drop in the bucket'

0 Comments | USA TODAY, June, 2007 | by Byron Acohido

SEATTLE -- The tech security world cheered the FBI's announcement Wednesday of a crackdown on cybercrooks who control networks of compromised computers, called botnets, to spread spam and carry out scams.

But the arrests in recent weeks of accused bot controllers James Brewer of Arlington, Texas; Jason Michael Downey of Covington, Ky.; and Robert Alan Soloway of Seattle will barely make a ripple, security analysts say.

"We applaud the government's involvement in stopping cybercrime," says Tom Gillis, senior marketing vice president at messaging security firm IronPort Systems. "But these arrests are a tiny drop in the bucket."

Soloway made a name for himself selling spamming kits and botnet access to fledgling spammers, according to a civil case he...