Teen causes chaos, employed, hacked
By John Leyden

The self-confessed author of the recent Twitter worm has scored a potentially lucrative job doing security analysis and web development work. Michael “Mikeyy” Mooney, a 17 year-old student from Brooklyn, New York, created a worm that exploited cross-site scripting vulnerabilities in a ham-fisted attempt to promote a site he ran, called StalkDaily.

The worm created thousands of automated tweets and spawned a number of copy-cat attacks. Two software development firms have offered Mikeyy-boy jobs since his worm created chaos on the social networking site last weekend. The miscreant has reportedly already accepted one of these jobs.

Travis Rowland, 24, founder and chief exec of Web applications development firm exqSoft Solutions, told ABC that Mooney has accepted the job he offered, which will involve security analysis and Web development.

Rowland admits that hiring Mooney will help publicise his firm, adding that he’s sympathetic to Mooney’s situation because he once worked in military intelligence and “landed that position in a similar fashion”.

There’s no independent confirmation of this claim from the previously obscure Rowland.

Mooney describes creating computer worms as a hobby, telling ABC he’s made five other worms over recent years. He’s aware that he crossed the line with the Twitter attack but claims that he could have done much worse and suggests he was only attempting to publicise flaws. Nonetheless, his parents have still retained the services of a lawyer.

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