http://www.nzherald.co.nz.
Teen charged with e-crime faces jail 5:00AM Saturday March 01, 2008
Teenage computer whiz Owen Walker faces up to seven years in jail after becoming the first person in New Zealand to be charged with botnet crime.
But it now seems unlikely the Whitianga teenager will be extradited to the United States to face charges.

Using the cyber-id Akill, Walker is alleged to have been part of a small but elite botnet coding group that developed

malware which is estimated to have caused more than US$20 million ($24.5 million) of economic loss and involved cyber

crimes committed in the United States ranging from vandalism to virtual bank robbery.
Walker appeared in the Thames District Court yesterday and was charged with two counts of accessing a computer for

dishonest purpose, damaging or interfering with a computer system, possessing software for committing crime and two counts

of accessing a computer system without authorisation.

He entered no plea and was remanded on bail to appear in court again next week.

AKILL is alleged to have been one of those behind a concentrated DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack at a

Philadelphia university in February last year.
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note max in (NZ) is 7 Years so out in 5 years FBI was going to take him back to USA get a long time in US have a look at this http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story....jectid=10499148
Wayne Thomas Patterson, 48, used 123 different identities between 2003 and 2006 to defraud the
Ministry of Social Development (MSD) of $3.48 million in welfare benefits.In October he was
sentenced to an eight-year jail term, with a minimum non-parole period of five years.
He is currently appealing his sentence

Good, he should go to jail.(for a long time)
20 million in damages is a LOT of money.

agreed. without people like that we wouldnt need all the protection software we run.

They should infect him with a virus Or sentence him to 200 smacks to the head with a lap top.

Whenever he gets out it wouldn't surprise me if they make him install monitoring software on his computer. I've also heard cases where they ban the person from being allowed to use computers altogether.(can this really be enforced? Probably not but its better than nothing).

They could make it a condition of his parole if he gets parole. Than if they catch him on a computer he gets his parole revoked for violating his conditions of parole. Once his sentence is fully served I don't think they can put any restrictions on him. He has done his time and is free to go. Of course if he pulls this crap again they will lock him up and throw away the key.

The New Zealand authorities have a excellent opportunity to make an example out of this clown! and should throw the proverbial book at him!

I don't know about new zealand but I assume they have probation or something similar there. Thats where they could get away with putting monitoring software on his computer. Would be no different then putting breathalizers in DUI driver's cars.

$20 Million estimate? What Federal idiot estimated that?
That's enough to make me use questionable language like other mild mannered members
when they get PI**ED OFF.
davey

P.S. They called him a computer "whiz".His victims have other ideas.

I visited there and had the most delicious Moules au Frites in a restaurant just off Brussels' Grand Place. Yummy

I knew a guy once a long time ago that I worked with that got into allot of trouble because of his malicious hacking with computers, and he wasn't allowed to own or use a computer and periodically someone would check him out to make sure he was behaving. He had told me if he slipped up he'd go straight to prison. Strange thing was we worked in an electronics store, and he wasn't even allowed to use the computers in the store nor sell them.

Probation is what you get instead of jail time. In that case you could monitor him until his probation is up. Parole is what you get when they let you out of the butt jammer hotel (jail ) early and again they can monitor you. But once your sentence is done thats it. You are free to do as you please. Thats how it is in Canada any ways. Maybe it's different in New Zealand.

Was this while he was on probation or out on parole? It wasn't a life time band was it?

Maybe not in canada but in the US you can go to jail and then be put on probation for years after you get out.
Not sure if your familiar with the hacker kevin mitnick but he wasn't allowed to use computers for a long time after he got out of jail. I remember there being a big thing on tech tv when his ban was up.(which was pretty dumb)

Never been there myself.
Many fine art lovers recognize this "whiz" kid.
davey