If youth are the future, then the future is very expensive: One New Zealand teen is suspected of being an international hacking mastermind, responsible for more than $20 million in electronic theft, crashing Penn State’s School of Engineering server, and creating software that infected over a million personal computers…kids these days.

The 18 year-old youth, identified only by his online handle “Akill” was arrested and several of his computers were confiscated; he was released from custody, but authorities plan on having a few more words with him, according to The Guardian.

Akill supposedly led an international group of hackers to set up botnets, or large clusters of computers that could infiltrate personal computers and steal credit card information, crash systems and tamper with stocks.

Additionally, both Akill and a Ryan Goldstein, 21, are suspected of crashing Pennsylvania State University’s School of Engineering server; authorities were able to trace the crash back to Goldstein’s screen name, though Goldstein denies the allegations. He’ll go on trial in March.

Martin Kleintjes, head of New Zealand’s e-crime unit, said, “He is very bright and very skilled in what he’s doing…He hired out his services to others.”

Though he might be very smart for 18, he can look forward to a lifetime of being monitored by governments worldwide that want to make sure he doesn’t do more than a little friendly Facebooking till the end of his days, guilty or not.

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Entry was posted on Saturday, December 1st, 2007 at 7:27 pm under Antivirus, Crime, Ecommerce, Internet, Legal, Security.

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