Date: Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Teenager Convicted of Cyber Crime
A teenager from Hamilton, New Zealand has admitted his role in an international cyber crime ring at a court hearing.
18-year-old Owen Thor Walker - who was thought to be the ringleader of the group - has admitted six charges of using computers for illegal purposes. Police allege that the group of hackers he led managed to hack into more than a million computers, which they used to skim over ten million dollars from private bank accounts.
The FBI detained the teenager last November as part of a global investigation into botnets. Botnets are networks of computers that have been hacked and can be controlled remotely over the internet. The hacked computers are often used to distribute spam, or for more illicit purposes.
It is thought that Owen Walker has Asperger’s syndrome, which is a neurobiological disorder that can cause in deficiencies in social skills. Asperger’s patients tend to have a normal level of intelligence, although they excel in certain areas. In Walker’s case, this area was almost certainly computing, as the teen managed to write highly sophisticated software that could evade most computer anti-spyware systems, which he then sold to criminals throughout the world.
According to the New Zealand Press Association, the charges Walker pleaded guilty to were accessing a computer for dishonest purposes, possession of software for committing crime, interfering with computer systems, and accessing computer systems without authorisation.
After the hearing, Walker was remanded on bail until May for sentencing. Despite the fact that several of the charges he faces carry maximum terms of five years' imprisonment, Judge Arthur Tompkins has said that he is not considering a prison term. This is thought to be because the 18-year old was underage when the offences were committed and on his arrest, the teenager cooperated fully with police.
Source:
Guardian
BBC
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