Darker Side of Autism: Cybercrime Among Autistic People Under Study

A 31-year old autistic man named Lauri Love is dreaded to face a 99 years imprisonment because of trying to break into NASA and Federal Reserve computers some months ago. He has Asperger Syndrome.

Such incident featured in the Engineering and Technology magazine is quite alarming for the possibility of having individuals on the spectrum to be used by gangs for cybercrime. They are suspected to be drifting into crime even though they start from online gaming and forums, according to Richard Mills, the research director at Research Autism and co-author of a study published last year on autism and cybercrime.

Based on the preliminary study of autism and cybercrime in the context of international law enforcement, Mills said that "the majority of those who get involved with this are not the so-called mastermind hackers, they are people who are very good at coding. They might not even know that what they are doing is illegal and may not see their behavior from the point of view of others."

Individuals on the spectrum who are in the high-functioning category can be very good at coding and recognising patterns, thus it can be so possible for them to get exploited by gangs who organize crimes over the internet.

It is very challenging for the parents of children with autism because computer, technology, and internet are among the "bestfriends" of most of their kids. And autistic individuals become dependent on these because of the learning apps and systems that can help them cope with the world and survive everyday life. Communication problems is high in autism and for most of them, computers and other gadgets are the last resort for company aside from family.

Having an autistic person in the jail is heartbreaking but cybercrime is a serious offense. High-functioning autistic individuals should also be educated as much as possible about the possibility to fall into such trouble.