Hacker sectioned to indefinite hospitalisation

[Oh_hunnihunni]

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-6766...lO8T1Wfr5k

I don't know how I feel about this. I can understand the action from the violence point of view, but from a commercial cost? Surely there are better ways to deal with such an incredible talent...

[Lilith7]

I'm also in two minds about it. On the one hand, he's severely Autistic which may affect his ability to comprehend right & wrong, (& then there's the question of would we also lock up someone with incurable cancer?) but on the other his actions caused harm & he has every intention of continuing to use his skills in the same way.

There's no doubt that he's highly skilled in this area; it would make more sense for those skills to be used for good & I'd like to think that sooner or later, authorities will quietly approach him & help him channel them into something non harmful.
I'd like to think that...but then, its also a possibility that authorities just might channel those skills of his into more harmful things.

[nzoomed]

We had a similar case in NZ, the autistic teenager went by the name "Akill" and created a huge bonnet, IMHO he did far more damage but largely had most charges dropped and if I'm not mistaken works as a security expert now.
What this kid did was wrong, but what he achieved should in theory be impossible, we need more people like him to ensure systems can't be broken into.
It's a bit like how Apple ended up employing the person who developed the first jailbreak to make their devices harder to be jailbreaked, not that there is anything legally wrong with jailbreaking your own device

[harm_less]

We had a similar case in NZ, the autistic teenager went by the name "Akill" and created a huge bonnet, IMHO he did far more damage but largely had most charges dropped and if I'm not mistaken works as a security expert  now.
What this kid did was wrong, but what he achieved should in theory be impossible, we need more people like him to ensure systems can't be broken into.
It's a bit like how Apple ended up employing the person who developed the first jailbreak to make their devices harder to be jailbreaked, not that there is anything legally wrong with jailbreaking your own device

He's got his own Wikipedia page with all the details now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Walker

[Lilith7]

We had a similar case in NZ, the autistic teenager went by the name "Akill" and created a huge bonnet, IMHO he did far more damage but largely had most charges dropped and if I'm not mistaken works as a security expert  now.
What this kid did was wrong, but what he achieved should in theory be impossible, we need more people like him to ensure systems can't be broken into.
It's a bit like how Apple ended up employing the person who developed the first jailbreak to make their devices harder to be jailbreaked, not that there is anything legally wrong with jailbreaking your own device

He's got his own Wikipedia page with all the details now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Walker

I love the quote from that page:


" TelstraClear spokesman Chris Mirams said it was not the equivalent of hiring a bank robber to advise on bank security."


Oh, really??! Then what the hell was it, if NOT precisely that??!


Oh, really[11]

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Poachers do make the best gamekeepers. We have always known that.