Throw his arse in the slammer for 10 years
All hackers are scum.
A former sysadmin faces six-to-12 years behind bars after admitting using his IT skills to conduct a series of burglaries, computer intrusions, and identity thefts in San Jose, California. Andrew Madrid, 34, pleaded guilty to a string of computer hacking, second degree burglary, and id theft offences last Friday. He also …
A high level of technical knowledge, and good social engineering skills ... and yet he decided to turn to crime? What an idiot ... of course, amphetamines will do that to you ...
No, Paul Smith, not all hackers are scum. Hackers built the software you are using to connect to the Internet, and indeed the Internet itself. Hackers did a lot more than just those two "little" things ... Hackers started Sun Microsystems, Apple, Inc., Cisco, HP, IBM, Seagate, Motorola, Intel ... need I go on?
As for the BOFH, I kind of wish ElReg would drop it. It was pretty funny 15 years ago (or so), when I first read it on Usenet, but it has become old, tired and derivative of itself.