A 20-year-old hacker pleaded guilty Monday to surreptitiously seizing control of hundreds of thousands of Internet-connected computers, using the zombie network to serve pop-up ads and renting it out to people who mounted attacks on Web sites and sent out spam.
Jeanson James Ancheta, of Downey, Calif., pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court to four felony charges for crimes, including infecting machines at two U.S. military sites, that earned him more than $61,000, federal prosecutor James Aquilina said.
