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The FBI has arrested a Los Angeles-area man accused of creating and selling "armies of computers" designed to launch electronic attacks and send tons of spam.
The government says it's the first prosecution of its kind in the nation.
A 17-count indictment contends Jeanson James Ancheta wrote and spread malicious computer code in order to gain control of legions of infected computers, then sold access to hackers and spammers.
Ancheta also allegedly made money by installing adware on the computers, known as "botnets.".
The indictment charges conspiracy, money laundering, transmission of code to a government computer and accessing a protected computer to commit fraud. The government says Ancheta's programs infected computers at a Navy weapons center and some Defense Department computers.
Conviction on all counts could mean a 50-year prison term.
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