14 DAY TRIAL // Akill, the infamous 16-year-old bot herder whose actions resulted in millions of dollars being lost to Internet fraud, has been hired by TelstraClear, the New Zealand branch of Telstra and the country's second biggest telecom provider.
Owen Thor Walker, known online as Akill, pleaded guilty in 2008 to six charges related to cybercriminal activity. However, the judge only decided on a fine of $15,000 for the hacker who had been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, on the basis that jail time would damage his future.
Akill was arrested as part of an international joint operation instrumented by the FBI, the US Secret Service, as well as the Dutch and New Zealand law enforcement agencies. The authorities claimed that Walker was the person behind a cybercriminal network that had caused damages estimated at $26 million.
Some of the hacker's actions included hacking into and crashing the network of the University of Pennsylvania's Engineering School in 2006, by using its compromised systems as command and control servers for a 1.3 million computer-strong botnet. The botnet was used to spread additional malware that stole information such as banking accounts and financial details, which were subsequently used for fraud.
TelstraClear was not the first organization to be interested in the hacker. The New Zealand police previously displayed its intentions to put his skills to good use in the fight against cybercrime. "The option is being kept open, but there is no offer on the table," Peter Devoy, detective inspector with the NZ police, said at the time of his trial.
A TelstraClear spokesperson pointed out that Walker was working for the company's DMZGlobal subsidiary. DMZGlobal is a business unit of TelstraClear that deals in information security solutions and consultancy.
Hiring hackers has become a common practice. We recently reported about "human-powered search engine" Mahalo.com hiring John Kenneth Schiefer, a botnet runner recently sentenced to four years behind bars. The company's management failed to do a background check before taking him on, but even after learning of his crimes decided to keep him employed, based on his exemplary behavior, at least until he had to go to prison.
Another hacker that has peaked the interest of companies and organizations is Gabriel Bogdan Ionescu, a 22-year-old Romanian who is currently serving a three-year sentence in Italy for electronic fraud. The Italian authorities are considering switching his conviction to house arrest and offering him a part-time job at Way-Log, a government contractor specializing in monitoring and investigating cybercrime.
Gabriel Bogdan Ionescu has won several medals at international mathemathics and informatics contests before being arrested and incarcerated. He is currently a student at the prestigious Polytechnic University of Milano, where he has amazed the professors after passing all of his exams so far, including the admission one, with the highest possible scores.