Botnet mastermind 'a whiz kid'

2007-12-03 08:24

Wellington - An 18-year-old New Zealand whiz kid alleged to be the brains behind a scam that infected about 1.3 million computers around the world is a brilliant loner who did it for a "bit of fun", according to friends quoted by a newspaper on Saturday.

The teenager, who used the cyber name AKILL, was interviewed last week by an agent of the FBI flown to New Zealand during an investigation into the scam that shut down the entire computer network used by 4 000 students and staff at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Weekend Herald quoted an FBI spokesperson as saying the youth was part of "an elite international botnet coding group" responsible for infecting more than one million computers and contributing to an economic loss of $20m.

Botnet is cyber jargon for a collection of computers infected with malicious software known as "malware" to act as robots or "bots".

The teenager, named by the paper as Owen Wilson, is alleged to have developed malware that spread viruses among computer networks, while evading electronic security systems and without alerting users.

"He's very bright and very skilled in what he's doing," Maarten Kleintjes, who heads the New Zealand police electronic crime unit, said on Friday.

He said the youth was "one of the world leaders in terms of developing this sort of software - it's absolutely first class".

Wilson and a 21-year-old American co-conspirator allegedly installed malware on 50 000 computers on the University of Pennsylvania network in February 2006.

The paper said Wilson was a brilliant computer programmer who worked for a software development company near Whitianga, on New Zealand's North Island and friends said he was also a keen poker player.

New Zealand police said he had not been charged but would be interviewed again after equipment seized from his home had been tested to establish exactly what he had done. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA