New Zealand telco denies hiring botnet operator arrested in FBI-led operation: Computerworld
March 26, 2009 (Computerworld) One of New Zealand’s largest telecommunications companies is downplaying reports that it hired as a security consultant a teenager who was arrested in 2007 after an FBI-led investigation fingered him as the operator of a massive international botnet operation.
Chris Mirams, a spokesman for Auckland-based TelstraClear Ltd., yesterday said the company had asked Owen Walker to be a speaker at two customer seminars last October and November. Walker’s image was also used in a targeted advertising campaign for TelstraClear’s DMZ Global security unit, Mirams said.
But apart from that contract, which lasted “approximately two months,” TelstraClear has not engaged Walker in any other capacity, Mirams said. “He was contracted for those duties only and was not, and is not, a full-time employee,” Mirams said in an e-mail.
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Tags: New Zealand, Owen Walker, TelstraClear Ltd
