Let me start out by saying I admire the folks at Mahalo, Jason Calacanis and and Mark Jeffrey are some of the nicest and smartest guys on the tech scene.

https://tinyurl.com/bp6hbs calacanis on why he employed a felon. @jasoncalacanis very interesting post.

After reading the story I am curious about a few things.

1. What was the timeline of the events. Perhaps reading the filings will answer this.

2. When did John Schiefer committed the crimes.

3. What was the nature of the attack on the 250,000 computers that his acts “infected”.

4. John was sentenced to 48 months in prison, he goes in on June 1, 2009.

5. What kind of position did John hold at Mahalo?

6. Surprising that a background check and multiple interviews that this issue never came up. Apparently Schiefer never thought it was relevant, did he read fill out an employment application, most have a section about have you been convicted, etc..

Now that he is now convicted of committing. Up until yesterday March 4, 2009, Schiefer was not sentenced only convicted of the crimes,  from what I understand. The hearing for the sentencing was finally held and Schiefer was sentenced to 48 months. Seems like a pretty lienient sentencing considering the act.

What has Schiefer done since committing these acts? Why is he allowed to work in the anything related to computers.

If you have ever had your computer enfected with adware, bots, viruses, etc, you hold a certain regard for this action. How many times have I yelled out while working on someone’s computer that was infected/compromised that the people who write code to infect computers should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Being violated as a computer user, lost productivity, did Schiefer have to pay for his actions, besides spending time in prison? What happens to all those computers and accounts that he compromised?

I’m sure we have not heard the end of this story.  Hopefully Jason and co have prepared for the firestorm.  The media/press will be eating this up.