A 20-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday to surreptitiously seizing control of hundreds of thousands of Internet-connected computers and renting the zombie network to people who mounted attacks on Web sites, served up pop-up ads and sent out spam.

Jeanson James Ancheta, of Downey, Calif., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to four felony charges for crimes, including infecting machines at two U.S. military sites, that earned him more than $61,000, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Aquilina said.

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