Teen Nabbed for $26M 'Net Heist

The computer ace behind a $26 million worldwide identity theft heist is only 18, police said today, after nabbing New Zealander Owen Whyte. The teen allegedly wrote a ‘spybot’ program which stole financial data from more than a million computers. Police called him “one of the most skilled people in the world [at writing] this sort of malicious software.”

Cops referred to the suspect by his hacker handle “AKILL” because he committed alleged crimes as a minor, but the Herald reports that Whyte already worked as a computer programmer, winning rave reviews, until the probe got him fired. He is currently cooperating with police, but faces 10 years if convicted. (More botnet stories.)