KEY POINTS:
Owen Walker says he was surprised and relieved to be discharged without conviction for his part in an international cyber-crime ring that attracted the attention of the FBI.
Speaking for the first time, the self-confessed "geek" told the Herald on Sunday he had expected to be sentenced to community service and was quietly enjoying the media spotlight.
"It was cool in a way," he says. "I never thought the story would have got so big but I guess being a first of its kind in New Zealand gave it a bit of a boost."
In April, the 19-year-old pleaded guilty to six charges connected to illegal computer use, which carried a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.
From January 2006 to November last year, he led an elite group of programmers using malware to infect and remotely control computers, using them as robots, or bots.
Walker created his own bot code, considered by investigators to be highly advanced, and remotely controlled tens of thousands of computers through overseas servers.
From a single computer in his attic bedroom, he illegally accessed and crashed the University of Pennsylvania's system and covertly installed advertisements on computers for several companies.
He earned an estimated $36,000-plus for this work, and other small payments, spending it on computer equipment and his parents' Whitianga taxi firm.
Known as Snow, because he was born in the South Island and had white hair, Walker grew up in the Coromandel tourist hotspot with younger brother Riley. His father Billy Whyte and mother Michelle Moxham-Whyte run the town's Paradise Taxis and the Bay B&B.
When he was 10, Walker was diagnosed with mild Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism often characterised by social isolation but higher intelligence. He told the Herald on Sunday he found it hard to talk about the condition but has put in a lot of hard work to develop his social skills.
"I have made a conscious effort to try and get out more."
Walker went to Mercury Bay Area School, where he felt alienated and picked on.
Although he excelled in maths and science, he loathed the entrenched rugby culture.
"At that school people really didn't like you if you had different interests and you were different. I got excluded quite a bit."
The bullying and teasing forced him to leave in 2002 and start correspondence classes from home.
Walker had an interest in computers from a young age and at 14 was so desperate to buy his own, he got a job before lessons.
"I would get up at 6am each day, and sort the mail at the local post office so I could save enough for my own computer."
Sitting alone in his bedroom, Walker taught himself how to use a computer and took solace in cyberworld.
He admits his love of gaming had possibly spilled into the real world for him. "I hooked up with some people online and I kind of got into bot [networks]. It was part of the challenge as a kind of game to see how many you could create and how big it could get."
Walker's loner lifestyle changed dramatically after his arrest.
He was questioned by the FBI, which considered attempting to extradite him to the United States.
Publicity around the case meant everyone in Whitianga wanted to be his friend and generated plenty of interest in his skills.
He now says his ideal job is "anything to do with software development" and he would be interested in working for the police.
He has had "loose offers" of "high-powered" jobs, mostly from New Zealand but a couple from Australia, and would like to leave Whitianga eventually.
For now he's content to hang out with friends, watch his favourite TV show Cold Case and comedies and thrillers on DVD and play the occasional video game.
Walker has no girlfriend but makes friends easily and says he now prefers the real world, which is "much more fulfilling".
His talents make him feel powerful and it is "probably very possible" he could hack into New Zealand Government security systems.
But he plans to stay on the right side of law, particularly because of the toll his arrest had on his parents.
"I've learned that crime really isn't worth it because it only takes one mistake and you all get caught," he said.
"You think you're really smart but you're not in the end, because you get caught out."
His advice to people worried about being hacked is to not trust email attachments from people they don't know and keep their anti-virus software updated.
And he also has some words of wisdom from the people who bullied him at school.
"I hope they have grown out of it by now - bullying is not cool."
