TEENAGER HACKED 50,700 COMPUTERS

A 17-year old boy from Finland has been found guilty of hacking over 50,000 computers. The crimes were committed when he was 15-16 years old.

He attacked computers at Harvard University and MIT as well as the technology news website ZDNet.com.

He also used stolen credit card details to buy things online, including champagne .

The teenager was found guilty and was given a 2 year suspended prison sentence. This means that if he does not commit a crime within 2 years, he will not go to prison; the sentence will be erased. If, however, he commits another crime sometime within the next 2 years, this sentence will be added to the sentence of the new crime.

It is probably because of his young age that he received a suspended prison sentence rather than having to go to jail.

One consultant at Euopol thinks that the teenager should have received a more severe punishment for his crime. He believes that the suspended jail sentence might encourage other young people to become hackers because they know that their punishment will be light if they are caught.