No Sentence But Job Offers for Hacker
18-year-old Owen Thor Walker of Hamilton, New Zealand, was the “mastermind”—-of a computer hacker sort—behind a worldwide group of criminals calling themselves the ‘A-Team’ and running a “sophisticated operation” that caused more than $20 million (£10 million) in damages to computer systems, the July 16th Telegraph reports. Walker has Aspeger Syndrome and designed software that enabled a criminal gang to steal user names and passwords and credit card information. In court on Tuesday, he was ordered by a judge to pay pay damages and costs of £5,000, but was not given a conviction and, indeed, looks like he’s going to have a job out of this: New Zealand police are interested in Walker working for them on the “‘right side of the law,’” and he is also “being headhunted by several computer programming companies.”
Walker had faced a sentence of 10 years in prison; he had pleaded guilty. One hopes he will put his talents good, and legal, use.
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6 opinions for No Sentence But Job Offers for Hacker
Kristin
Jul 18, 2008 at 12:02 am
I am married to a man that I am convinced is on the spectrum…and he happens to work in information security (he’s still doing the hacking, but for the good guys as you say). They are always looking for people with those capabilities and that working sector is filled with quirky guys who get obsessed with their work. No problems fitting in socially there.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Jul 18, 2008 at 1:37 am
At least one close acquaintance I know became a technical writer in the Valley after a couple of jobs in other areas and it’s been just the right thing.
Marla
Jul 18, 2008 at 9:50 am
I had to stop and send this one to Joe. He will find it quite interesting, I think. Certainly an up and coming field for those who have the talent.
Daisy
Jul 18, 2008 at 10:39 am
This story reminds me of my brother-in-law. He’s not on the spectrum, but he’s a computer whiz and OCD. If I ever need hacking, I’d call him.
Stuff Asperger People Like
Jul 18, 2008 at 3:16 pm
This sounds similar to Frank Abignail’s story from his “Catch me if you can,” book and movie. Millions of check forgery and years later he runs a multi million dollar business helping large Forbes companies prevent fraud. Let’s hope the ending is the same.
C. S. Wyatt
Jul 19, 2008 at 2:26 am
I do feel comfortable with computer code. Programming is soothing. I’ll spend hours trying to solve a problem.
Discovering computers was like finding freedom. I still can’t help but try the latest and greatest toys (compilers, database servers, operating systems).
Of course, I end up getting distracted and going on to another project.
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