Internet search engine Mahalo is sorry to see a hacker, who was a cherished member of its team, get sent to prison for four years.

Mahalo boss Jason Calacanis said he hired John Schiefer without being aware of his cyber crimes, and regretted seeing him sentenced to four years porridge.

Schiefer used "botnets," to steal people's identities and snoop on electronic communications.  The 27 year-old  pleaded guilty in US federal court to breaking into computers to commit fraud and steal information sent during online financial transactions.
Schiefer duped a Dutch Internet advertising company into paying more than $19,000 install its software on people's computers, supposedly with their consent.

Instead, Schiefer and accomplices secretly slipped the Dutch firm's software onto approximately 150,000 "zombie" computers. Calacanis said that he wished that judge had given John a sentence from home, "where we could have supervised him."

Almost all talented developers push the envelope when they're young. Anyone in technology knows this dark, dirty little secret, he added.

When he comes out, he wants to give him a job.