An 18 year old boy by the name of Owen Thor Walker who was allegedly the ringleader of a cyber-crime gang has been charged.

Walker admitted to six charges including accessing a computer for dishonest purposes, interfering with computer systems, possession of software for committing crime and accessing computer systems without authorisation.

Police in New Zealand arrested in the boy in November whom they believed to be a ringleader in an international cyber-crime gang.

The group is believed to have brought down the server at the University of Pennsylvania and infiltrated more than a million computers.

Police estimate the gang have skimmed $25m in from victims bank accounts by hijacking computers all over the world and networking them to form a botnet. Walker is believed to have written programs unlike any other, capable of evading normal anti-virus software.

Police suspected he then sold it to other hackers. Detectives in NZ, who are working with Dutch detectives and the FBI say the boy (screen name AKILL) is very bright and very skilled in what he was doing.

Walker will receive his sentence in May and could be in for up to 10 years in the slammer.