It surprises me when I read some of the comments above. It's almost as though average Joe doesn't want intelligent people anymore. These hackers, however misguided, could be our best future hope for combating the Chinese and the Russians and whoever else might be committing the real cyber crimes (spying etc) against our banks and infrastructure. It will be interesting to see how long it will be until the Chinese start embedding this kind of code directly into hardware (after all they do manufacture most of it) and even more interesting to see how long it will take us to discover it. “IT Professionals” make me laugh as well – Any idiot can install Windows and plug a keyboard in – It's just you got lucky enough to get paid for it :)

Andy, Newport,

He got caught, so how smart is he?

Ted Bronski, Cape Town, South Africa

Putting parents on trial for a cyber crime their kid committed is the most retarded and ignorant thing I have had the opportunity to see.

At 18 he is still a kid and most probably has a better understanding of computers than his parents or anyone else in his entourage.

What do you want his parents to do, learn all the programming languages he knows and constantly watch what he's writing on the computer?
Propose to check his browsing history?

Also this kid was not a script kiddie, he was SELLING his software within hacker fields, to most likely script kiddies.

In other words, this kid is much more qualified than you might think and getting caught means he was just not experienced enough. At 18 it is worth to pick him up, give him proper guidance so that he can actually put his skills to good use.

I always find it humorous when people start talking about putting teenagers in jail for cyber crimes. When you're 17 you might not fully understand the ramifications of your actions

Alex, montreal, QC

Ironically the boys real name is "Owen Wilson". You would think with a name like that he would have more friends....or suffer from depression.
I just noticed the NZ media has stopped running the original story as above and are promoting a lesser role in case, adding something about damaging $5000 of university equipment - as stated above this is one more FBI recruit in the making

Ben, London,

Yes, yes, and we all know this kid will eventually end up working at some sort of anti-cybercrime unit or as a security consultant. Hopefully he's not just some 3r337 cyber script kiddie with hacked out VB.NET code.

Nathan, Seattle, WA

Well, Just read Dan Browns 'Digital Fortress' to learn the rest of the story. He'll (or she) will be employed at the highest occupation !

matthew, stourbridge, UK

not a lot else to do in Hamilton.

MGB, carmarthen, wales

Bill from NY - If you were any good at your job, he couldn't affect the systems you are responsible for. Let me guess - you think Windows Server 2003 is the shizzle, right?

I have no sympathy for Windows "Systems Admins", point 'n click boy.

Jim, Dundee, UK

This guy is a really intelligent person. And one can only hope that more than just straight out punnishing him, i would like to see law enforcement taking them onto their side to help them beat the copy cats.

Kurt Rencher, Rotorua, New Zealand

As some random guy on the internet who makes fun of the kind of people who start out paragraphs on their totally whack beliefs by stating their profession as if doing so somehow makes their comments about remoivng people's eyeballs and hands for writing mean computer code somehow more intelligent sounding, I think you need to take a big, deep, breath, and go ride bikes or something.

Buddha, San Francisco, CA

i think this kid.....Rock...

For Those About to Hack.... We Salute You

bayu, Medan, Indonesia

At this age he is neither kid nor adult. Instead of penalising and condemning an impressionable youth I'd suggest reformative nurture of his talents and values as a more effective alternative to engage his gifts and turn them into constructive, potent instruments or weapons against cybercrime. Win him over than 'mould' a potential cyberterrorist.

Randolph, YC, Singapore

Randolph Goh, Singapore, Singapore

He may be talented but he is not so l33t (elite in hacker speak, short for leet). I have met and dealt with people that have far better skills than this kid. He is a punk who got caught. As far as hiring him goes, obviously there is no need. The cops were able to reverse engineer his work and track him down.

He is another criminal who needs to be sent to a minimum security yard where his new name will be Princess.

He should be made an example of. These punks stealing our information need to learn that it is not acceptable. BTW, I think that his parents should be on trial as well, especially since he was doing this before he was 18. Wake up parents, you are failing in your duties to raise your children the right way. You are neglecting your civic duties to protect the rest of us from your spawn.

Do you know what would happen if you put him in a room of 500 people and locked the door for 10 mins? You would have a dead body and 500 people who saw nothing.

N0 N4m3, Los Angeles, CA

whoa now. i feel for you, bill from ny. seeing as this stuff causes you headaches on a daily basis with your job. but you might need to chill out or get a new job if its making you want to poke little kids eyes out.

take care

Levi, Asheville,

Wow! Somebody with enough smarts to do something worth doing, however; he should have never sold his software if he had the knowledge to do it himself. He should be given a real job and a medal for doing what we all have wanted to do but can't. If he goes to jail he loses his freedom but we lose a person that could do much more .......

Ken Lanz, Shirley, NY

As an IT professional who has to deal with this kind of crap every day, I think that somebody should have the guts to make an example of this kid. I think we should cut off his hands and poke out his eyes and post the procedures on the Internet as a promise to other hackers. I would say the same thing if he was 14 or 16 instead of 18. It's about time that the authorities begin treating Internet crime as a major crime with the most severe punishments.

Bill, New York, NY

Get his thinking turned around and HIRE HIM. After all, anyone with the knowledge to build this kind of a program certainly could benefit those trying deperately to defend against it.

BK, Orange Park, FL