"An American security consultant who stole hundreds of thousands of online bank passwords by employing a massive botnet that he often administered from work deserves at least five years in prison, prosecutors have told a federal judge.

The request for a minimum 60-month sentence, followed by five years of supervised release, came in the case of John Kenneth Schiefer of Los Angeles, who in November of 2007 admitted he was the hacker known alternately as Acid and Acidstorm and wielded a 250,000-strong bot army.

Prosecutors rejected Schiefer's arguments that he should be allowed to continue working as a security consultant, saying the stiff penalty was justified by the extreme callousness and brazenness of his offenses.

"The widespread, pernicious, and malicious manner in which this crime occurred favors a lengthy custodial sentence," prosecutors wrote in court documents filed earlier this month. "Defendant nonetheless offers his own self-serving claim that his malicious software did not damage the computers that he infected. Defendant should not be believed."

Read more: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/23/botmaster_sentencing_kerfuffle/