Re: Now, for the last act ...
If he excelled at it he wouldnt have got caught. Whats more there are many smart people in IT around the world and 99.999% of them dont turn to illegal hacking to get their kicks - they use their gifts for positive undertakings,
As a teenager he probably wouldn't have.
As many have pointed out, it wasn't that long ago when there were no books, courses or certs on security, reverse-engineering malware or anything else. Even five years ago, you were looking at expensive industry certs that an employer was expected to pay for. Not something a teenager could dabble in.
Nowadays, there are lots of options out there and anyone turning to black-hat "to learn" is making their own bed. But the plethora of resources available these days exist because the likes of Kevin Mitnick (and to a lesser extent Hutchins) went out and broke stuff in their youth and demonstrated quite ably that you do actually need to secure your stuff, because if they can break it, so could the Russians/Chinese/Syrians/corporate competition.
Judging Hutchins today based on teen antics is as sensible as saying "You, a 35year old, can't work in a cash-handling position because you were cautioned for shoplifting when you were 17".
Given subsequent "good conduct" in the form of extensive white-hat work, slap on the wrist, chalk it up to youth and move on.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
