Raphael Gray (above, right) has been described as the Bill Gates of hacking. The title comes as a result of the hacking he performed when he was just 19 years old. The Welsh man decided to hack many computers all over the world, and he did it for 6 weeks. He took over computers in a multi-million-dollar credit card scheme to point out the weakness of online security systems. After hacking into the computer systems, he published the details of 6,500 credit cards on his website. He even posted a public message, boasting that law enforcement would never find him because “the police couldn’t hack their way out of a paper bag.” The comment infuriated ex-hacker Chris Davis, who made it his mission to track down Gray. As it turns out, it only took him a day to find the teenage hacker. Once Davis located Gray, he forwarded the information to the FBI. It wasn’t long before the FBI and officers from the local police department were pounding on Gray’s door. He was hauled off to jail and appeared before a judge shortly thereafter. The judge, believing that Gray had an emotional problem, sentenced him to 3 years under psychiatric care. Leaving the courtroom, Gray smiled and said that he regretted not what he had done, but the way he had done it. He said if he had it to do over again, he would still point out the ineffectiveness of computer security systems, but he would do it in a legal way. The financial industry was outraged that Gray faced no jail time, pointing out that he had caused them to have to issue new credit cards to those 6,500 people whose information was compromised, a feat that cost them $3 million.
