Back in July I wrote a post about Owen Thor Walker (still a cool middle name), the 19-year old bot herder who got caught and admitted to his crimes and was subsequently LET GO. He had to pay some cash and give up his computing equipment, but otherwise got away with it because some cops said they wanted to use his skills to fight crime.
Well, another story came out today at the same online site, and the story reads like the kid hired a public relations firm to help clean up his image. It is either that, or someone is trying to bring back the glory days of illegal hackers as the heros of the cyber underworld, fighting against the power (very Matrix-ish, don't you think?).
First, the title of the article kills me - Super hacker wants to be next Bill Gates. Wow. I am sure the kid is good, but sheesh. "Super hacker"? When is he getting the costume with the big SH on it? And he wants to be Bill Gates? Well, that might be doable actually.
I'll let you read the article to get your fill of someone trying to make this kid look like he was just having fun and kinda fell into the bad world and couldn't resist the money. But honestly, this just annoys me. This kid should have been behind bars the entire time from July until now. Whatever happened to personal responsibility?------------------------
I have to fully agree with Micheal on this one...this story in Stuff.co.nz makes it sound like he was just some kid that stole a candybar...as opposed to an adult that created an advanced botnet that was used to make $40,000 in eight months. I don't know if this money was stolen from users or make by renting out the botnet. Either eway, this is cybercrime....pure and simple.
Sadly, the NZ court said he had to pay $14,000...and gave no jailtime. I guess we are all ok with him keeping an illegal $26,000?? Really?
NZ needs to get a grab....
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