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O'Brien started Scorpion Studios, which advises film and television producers on how to make technology appear real. In 2014, O'Brien described his company as a think tank for "high IQ individuals". The New Ross Standard wrote that Scorpion Computer Services started as an IT tutoring service that expanded into security and risk management, and The Irish Times also described Scorpion Computer Services as an artificial intelligence company.
The Irish Times reported he brought the business with him in the late 1990s, after graduating from university and moving to the United States. O'Brien allegedly founded Scorpion Computer Services at age 13 in 1988. The university from which he graduated shows his team finished the 1993 Olympiad in 90th place out of 250. O'Brien was a member of the Irish team that participated in the 1993 International Olympiad in Informatics computer coding competition. Techdirt pointed out that the United States Department of Homeland Security-which CBS showed surrounding O'Brien's family's home in the television show-did not exist at the time of the alleged hack. įrench tabloid Telestar reported that there is no record of the alleged NASA hack. According to O'Brien, he had an extradition document ready in his backpack, but he could not provide more details on the deal that was made due to non-disclosure agreements. He told the agents he would help show them vulnerabilities in their network in exchange for not getting into trouble. In an interview with Silicon Republic, an Irish technology news website, O'Brien claimed that the NSA, through Interpol, appeared at his home following the hack. 1988), he hacked into NASA under the pseudonym "Scorpion". O'Brien has stated that when he was thirteen years old ( c. Other sources indicate that his interest began when he was 12, when his parents bought him a computer.
O'Brien's father gave him livestock as payment for doing chores on the farm, which he sold in order to purchase an Amstrad personal computer at age nine, around 1984. Early interest in computers Īccording to the New Ross Standard, a local paper in O'Brien's home county, his interest in computers began when his primary school started offering a computer course. Īfter completing his Leaving Certificate at St Kieran's College in Kilkenny, O'Brien attended the University of Sussex where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and artificial intelligence. Susan Karlin questioned why, since O'Brien uses his childhood IQ score as part of his self-marketing, he did not retake the test through Mensa so that it could be confirmed. Mike Masnick noted that of all the "top IQ" lists available online, each one is different and none contains O'Brien's name. Techdirt and The Irish Times said that O'Brien's 197 IQ score from childhood does not mean his intelligence exceeds that of other adults because scoring is scaled based on age.
O'Brien has stated he scored a 197 on an IQ test administered by one of his teachers in primary school but did not keep the paperwork. Mary's Christian Brothers School, Enniscorthy. Patrick's National School in Clonroche until his family moved to Rosshaven, when he was 13 years old. The second of five children, he grew up on a farm. Walter O'Brien was born to Maurice and Anne O'Brien in 1975 in Clonroche, County Wexford, Ireland.