19 Year Old Super Hacker Courted By Corporations And Law Enforcement Escapes Conviction
- By Grey McKenzie
- Published 07/15/2008
Grey McKenzie
National Cyber Security Founder
Cyber security watchdog Grey McKenzie is one of the nation's leading Internet security experts.
Some of his clients include members of the Department of Homeland Security, State Department, Department of Defense & the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
His SpyCop security software products are in use by over 50,000 individuals & companies worldwide
To schedule an interview or consult with Grey call 902-532-2262
It's stories like this that draw many into the dark side of Black Hat hacking.
Of course when the stakes are so high, and everyone is attempting to stay on top of the digital dollar tsunami, is anyone really surprised?
According to the Otago Daily Times...
A quiet, immature "but computer-brilliant" loner who put New Zealand on the international cyber crime map has been approached by large overseas corporations keen to employ him.
And the New Zealand police have expressed interest in using the sophisticated internet skills of self-taught teenager , who lives in the small Coromandel Peninsula town of Whitianga.
The infamous young hacker, who turns 19 on Saturday, seems suddenly to have the world at his feet - on the right side of the law.
Usually showing little emotion publicly, Walker smiled broadly from the dock of the High Court in Hamilton today when Justice Judith Potter discharged him without conviction on six charges covering illegal use of a computer system.
The most serious count - committed when he was aged 16 - carries a maximum sentence of seven years' prison.
Walker's mother, Shelley Moxham-Whyte, wiped away tears in the public gallery. Alongside her were relieved husband Billy and younger son Riley, 15.
The sentencing was the culmination of a lengthy Federal
Bureau of Investigation cyber crime investigation spanning
the United States, Europe and New Zealand and dubbed "Bot
Roast".
It resulted in Walker's arrest last November, nearly two years after he started experimenting with bot programs, and was the first prosecution of its kind in this country.
An unlikely criminal, the fresh-faced, long-haired teen was accused of masterminding a scam which infected more than a million computers and contributing to many millions of dollars in damage.
Using the cyber ID "Akill", Walker was the ring-leader of a small but elite botnet coding group known as the A-Team. He admitted knowing what he was doing was illegal but had not considered it criminal.
Full Story