Wellington - New Zealand police said Tuesday that a teenage hacker who designed virus software that reportedly infected a million computers worldwide was so skilled they may give him a job, news reports said after he appeared in court. A judge discharged Owen Thor Walker, 18, without penalty after he admitted six charges relating to his involvement with an international cyber crime ring, saying he had not acted with criminal intent and a conviction could jeopardise his potentially outstanding future.
And Maarten Kleintjes, who heads the New Zealand police electronic crime unit, said the youth, who was known by his cyber identification as "AKILL", was "one of the world leaders in terms of developing this sort of software - it's absolutely first class."
He told Radio New Zealand that Walker's skills were unique and added, "He has the potential to do well if he works on the right side of the law."
Walker was arrested in November after an investigation in which the New Zealand police co-operated with the FBI, the United States Secret Service and Dutch law authorities.
An FBI spokesman said at the time that Walker was part of "an elite international botnet coding group" responsible for infecting more than a million computers, including shutting down the entire network of 50,000 computers used by students and staff at the University of Pennsylvania.
Botnet is cyber jargon for a collection of computers infected with malicious software known as "malware" to act as robots or "bots."
Walker, who reportedly has Asperger's Syndrome, was accused of developing the "malware" that spread viruses in networks of computers unknown to their users which evaded all electronic security systems.
The charges against Walker included accessing a computer for dishonest purpose, damaging or interfering with a computer system, possessing software for committing a crime and accessing a computer system without authorisation.
The prosecution agreed with a defence submission that Walker should be discharged without conviction and Detective Inspector Peter Devoy told the Hamilton High Court that police may consider offering Walker employment because of his remarkable ability with computers.
Judge Judith Potter said she did not think he was motivated by criminal intent or maliciousness and did what he did to show that he could.
Although she discharged him without conviction, Walker was ordered to pay reparation of nearly 10,000 New Zealand dollars (about 7,600 US dollars) and court costs of 5,000 New Zealand dollars.
