Peaches, don't let your good heart keep you from getting justice done. This kid is not a hacker. He is a cracker. He destroys. He doesn't care whom he hurts.
Once upon a time I felt like you. A lot of years have gone by and I realize there is a very big difference between hackers who discover holes in Microsoft Explorer and reveal them, and a cracker like this kid and Kevin Mitnick, who not only do millions of dollars in damage, but take away our privacy and expose us and our computers to danger.
Mitnick's cry is that he was made an example by the government and all he was doing was entering other's computers and "taking a look" because he was curious. Bullshit! Mitnick was a thief. He stole information from systems. He says he never profited from his actions. How can we believe this bastard when he has lied his entire life about everything he has done.
These cracker virus sending shitheads deserve to be tossed into prison for several years, given supervised probation after they leave prison, fined, forced to do community service work, and branded with FAT FELON FUCK on their foreheads.