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.![Hide This Hide this](https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/topclose.png)
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.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: cracking, fraud, hacking, new zealand
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
not in amerika...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: not in amerika...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Victims....
Let them talk to him....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
lolz
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
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
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
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.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
cc
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The rest of the story?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Eh..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Imagine a criminal system that is focused on rehibilitation rather than punishment
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Its good living in NZ
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]