Coming down like a ton of bricks
December 2nd 2007 06:41
The FBI don’t often visit New Zealand – as far as we know – but this week they’ve arrived to interview an 18-year-old computer hacker called Owen Wilson. They say that in spite of his age, Wilson is the mastermind behind a botnet fraud involving the infection of more than a million computers and up to $26 million.
Owen Wilson lives in Whitianga, with his mum, who’s refused to let the media talk to him, and who declined to make any comment herself.
Wilson has a couple of aliases on the Net: Snow Whyte (which may not be appropriate any longer) and Akill. Under the latter name it’s alleged that he was the co-conspirator in an attack made in February this year in which the computer network of the University of Pennsylvania suffered a complete breakdown. Some 4000 staff and students were denied access to their network.
Wilson is confirmed to be a brilliant programmer, but also something of a loner. Supposedly he got into the scam as a bit of fun. He works at Trio Software Development, a computer firm in Coroglen, near Whitianga.
So far Wilson has not been charged, but he has the combined forces of the FBI, the NZ Police, the US Secret Service and the Dutch authorities on his tail. It’s no wonder a friend said he was ‘pretty shaken up.’
Owen Wilson lives in Whitianga, with his mum, who’s refused to let the media talk to him, and who declined to make any comment herself.
Wilson has a couple of aliases on the Net: Snow Whyte (which may not be appropriate any longer) and Akill. Under the latter name it’s alleged that he was the co-conspirator in an attack made in February this year in which the computer network of the University of Pennsylvania suffered a complete breakdown. Some 4000 staff and students were denied access to their network.
Wilson is confirmed to be a brilliant programmer, but also something of a loner. Supposedly he got into the scam as a bit of fun. He works at Trio Software Development, a computer firm in Coroglen, near Whitianga.
So far Wilson has not been charged, but he has the combined forces of the FBI, the NZ Police, the US Secret Service and the Dutch authorities on his tail. It’s no wonder a friend said he was ‘pretty shaken up.’
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