New Zealand Teen Hacks UPenn, Starts Snitchin’

Posted on July 16, 2008
Filed Under News, The Daily Prereq | By Mike Dang

It’s always nice when bad guys turn over a new leaf. According to the AP, a New Zealand teen who hacked into the University of Pennsylvania computer system in 2006 was ordered to pay more than $11,000 in fines to the college this week. The hacker, 18-year-old Owen Thor Walker, avoided jail time by agreeing to cooperate with investigators and help them track down other cyberthieves. The prosecutor and defense lawyer in the case said Walker’s skills could be used on the right side of the law, and the judge said that Walker was a young man with a potentially outstanding future. Awww. It’s just like that movie Hackers!

Walker went by the online name “AKILL” and was linked to a network accused of infiltrating 1.3 million computers and skimming millions from unsuspecting bank accounts. In 2006, 21-year-old UPenn student Ryan Brett Goldstein allegedly conspired with AKILL to take down Internet Relay Chat forums in revenge for having him banned from discussions earlier in the year. AKILL agreed to help Goldstein in exchange for login rights to a Web site and malicious Trojan Horse software. Unfortunately, UPenn’s servers inadvertently crashed mid-hack and the FBI later unraveled the plot. Lessoned learn. Be nice to computer whizzes or they’ll hunt you down in the matrix!

(Source: Chronicle of Higher Education)

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