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corporate

Teen hacker turns into corporate cyber-crime consultant

by Mahesh Kukreja on March 25, 2009

A New Zealand teenager who helped a crime gang hack into more than 1 million computers worldwide and skim millions of dollars from bank accounts has a new job as a security consultant for a telecom company.

Owen Thor Walker has the skills that can help senior executives and customers understand the security threats to their computer networks, TelstraClear spokesman Chris Mirams told National Radio on Wednesday.

Walker pleaded guilty last July — when he was 18 — to a raft of charges connected to his work for an international network that the FBI estimated infiltrated 1.3 million computers and skimmed bank accounts or damaged computer systems to the tune of more than $20 million.

The charges against Walker — who used the online name “AKILL” and wrote so-called botnet infiltration programs for the crime network — were dismissed and he was released without a criminal record after paying a fine and forfeiting cash paid by the criminal group for his expertise.

Walker already has delivered a series of seminars for TelstraClear, advised senior security and management staff at the company and has taken part in an advertising campaign, Mirams said.

“It was really just … to let them know the type of cyber threats that are out there,” Mirams said, adding that Walker also discussed how to defend against those threats.

Some hackers send mass e-mails to a target corporate or government computer system to overload it and crash the system. Others assume control of thousands of computers and amass them in centrally controlled clusters known as botnets.

The hackers can then use the computers to steal credit card information, manipulate stock trades and crash industry computer systems.

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Skype Going Corporate

by Mahesh Kukreja on March 23, 2009

Skype, the internet telephony business, have announced a new product software specifically for the corporate market called Skype for SIP.

The software, to be released shortly, will allow employees to make local and international calls using their standard office telephones instead of requiring headsets or specialized skyp phones. Skype are likely to charge per minute for calls to landlines and mobiles, with skype to skype phone calls free of charge.

The company recently reached a 400 million user milestone and have apparently earned 145 million in revenues in the 1st quarter of 2009. WSJ reports that Skype had $550 million in revenues last year, so there does seem to some improvement. However, the eBay owned company needs to improve on that and fast if it stands any chance of selling the company or recouping the $2.6 billion they paid for it.

Skype for SIP product will be introduced as a beta product and will be tested by a limited number of companies.

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