Lesson Learned: Microsoft Nurture, Rather Than Destroy, Hackers

In a move that is widely being interpreted as a lesson learned from Sony's heavy-handed response to the PS3 hacking and the subsequent network-wide outages that followed, Microsoft have chosen to instead nurture the talents of a 14-year old boy from Dublin, Ireland, who attempted to break into the Xbox LIVE network. The boy was responsible for a network-wide alert when Microsoft detected the intrusion and feared that personal information may have been compromised.

During his keynote speech at the Bank of Ireland Business Week, Microsoft's General Manager in Ireland Paul Rellis revealed that the company had begun to "work with the teenager to develop his talent and help him use his skills for legitimate purposes". This move is being seen as an attempt to avoid the sort of hacker-community backlash that resulted from Sony's public attempts to shut down and prosecute hackers like GeoHot and the Fail0verflow group for their part in bypassing the PS3's security measures.

Exactly what the boy from Tallaght is working with Microsoft on, or what they plan to do with him once his training is complete, is not yet known.