NZ Teenager Pleaded Guilty for Infecting Computers Internationally

Owen Thor Walker, 18, a New Zealand teenager, accepted six charges in the court on April 1, 2008 and acknowledged that he developed a malicious virus that infected millions of computers worldwide, as reported by The Earth Times on April 1, 2008.

According to the FBI, over one million computers were infected which caused an estimated loss of more than $20 Million.

Arthur Thomkins, Judge, said that Walker's involvement in highly sophisticated case can lead to five years of imprisonment but he would not order for his imprisonment because he is suffering from Asperger's syndrome, a low level of autism, as reported by AFP on April 1, 2008.

According to the police, Walker started committing the crimes when he was in the school and known as "Akill" on the Internet. The police also said that Walker designed a peculiar encrypted virus which was hard to be detected by an antivirus software.

The malicious virus was capable to steal user names, passwords and credit card details. It was also used by criminals for malicious activities.

Walker acknowledged two charges in the court of Thames that include accessing computers for malevolent activities, interfering with computer systems, and keeping the software for carrying out malicious activities. He also pleaded guilty to two charges of taking over computer systems without users' consent. All the charges came under computer provisions of the Crimes Act.

The New Zealand police also revealed that Walker was indulged in attacks on the computer system of the university in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia in the month of February 2006.

Including this, Walker accompanied a US programmer in which they got control and infected around 50,000 computers. As a result, the university's server was crashed and 4,000 students, faculty members and staff could not access the system.

However, after 18 months of investigation by the New Zealand police in cooperation with Dutch authorities and FBI, Walker was arrested.

In November 2007, when Walker was nabbed by the police, he was charged with infiltrating computers with its malicious software across the world. The Police also blamed him for planting unwanted advertising spam on around 1.3 Million computers with computers placed in the Netherlands.

Related article: NZ Researcher Uncovers Hacking Techniques Against Vista

» SPAMfighter News - 4/7/2008