Trends How much does a Botnet cost? By David Cawley | 1 minute read It could cost you up to 60 years in prison along with a $1.75 million fine. At least that’s the situation facing John Shiefer as reported recently by the Los Angeles Times. Schiefer is reported to have compromised up to a quarter of a million computers and used them to steal personal financial information from his victims. He will now go down in history as the first person to be accused of running a botnet under the US federal wiretapping law.