New Zealand Hacker Released As Police, Judge, Prosecutors All Praise His Mad Hacking Skillz
from the resume-builder dept
Well, here's an odd one. A kid in New Zealand who was arrested for creating software used by an online organized crime group to access people's usernames, passwords and credit card details has been released and the charges against him dropped. What's odd about it is all the praise being heaped upon 18-year-old Owen Thor Walker. Prosecutors raved about how the info-grabbing program he wrote was "one of the most advanced they had seen" and the judge said that convicting him would "jeopardise a potentially bright career." Meanwhile, the police noted they "were interested in using his skills to fight cyber-crime." While we usually see police and judges overreact to hacking cases, talking about how dangerous some kid and some code can be, this almost seems like the opposite. Not that the kid should necessarily have been convicted, but all this praise just seems like we've entered backwards-for-a-day world.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: cracking, fraud, hacking, new zealand
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not in amerika...
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Re: not in amerika...
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Victims....
Let them talk to him....
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lolz
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Oh Snap!
But seriously, although it's refreshing to see the law not overreacting, I must agree that this seems like too little was done. At least equivalent restitution or something but at least they didn't give him 10-20 and create another career criminal.
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This article does not mention the fine he received, although its nothing compared to the $40,000 he received for doing the job.
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/feature/story.cfm?c_id=1501832&objectid=10521614
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facts
Probably flagged so that every time a botnet incident arises, they'll consider him as a suspect. And he'll be working for 'The Man' now. So they'll know where to find him if he misbehaves again.
Yes, he got off light, but not free, and I suspect that Bill M was right and that he cooperated with authorities.
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cc
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The rest of the story?
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Eh..
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Imagine a criminal system that is focused on rehibilitation rather than punishment
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Its good living in NZ
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