 James Kosta came off the rails and divorced his parents at 13

 At 14, he was convicted of 45 counts of technical burglary and convicted to 45 years in prison
 Instead he was allowed to join the Navy at 18 as intelligence analyst
 At 20 he joined the CIA tracking funds of warlords in Africa and Middle East
 At 24 he sold his first dotcom company for tens of millions of dollars
 Now 37 his games development firm turns over more than $10m a year
 He also mentors 'troubled youth' to help unlock their potential
 'When you look a little deeper, as people did with me, you're able to get kids focused on their potential'

For software developer James Kosta, life has played

virtually like a video game, with a new character on
every level.

From parental divorcee to computer hacker, convicted

criminal to Navy intelligence analyst, CIA agent to
multimillionaire - the 37-year-old knows how to role-
play.

At 13 he was already earning $1,500 a month as an IT consultant. He even managed to persuade his school
to let him 'formalise the computer club' and run his business from there.

With an 18-year-old girlfriend, pockets full of cash and friends aplenty he began skipping school and
staying out late into the night.

Then his parents issued him with an ultimatum: If he wanted to live under their roof he had to give it all up
and focus on school.

'I went to court and proved to a judge I was responsible enough to be on my own,' he told the Huffington
Post.

Alone and with nobody to reign him in, he turned his knack for computers into low-level hacking.

But his solo activities soon caught the attentions of the online criminal underworld and he was swiftly
recruited into a criminal hacking collective.

He and his accomplices began hacking the sites of big business and military, including the systems of major
banks, General Electric and IBM. For this 14-year-old nothing was out of bounds.

 Then early one morning there was a bang on the door. Naked and bleary eyed, Kosta answered and was
bundled to the ground by an FBI tactical squad armed with MP-5 sub-machine guns.

'I was terrified. When you're that young, because your parents always give you warnings, you expect
someone to say, hey, knock it off. I never expected any action like that.'

And because he was now divorced from his parents, he was officially a 14-year-old adult.
 Off the rails: Kosta soon earned a reputation in the online criminal
underworld and was recruited into a feared hacking collective infiltrating the
sites of big business and military (stock image)

He was found guilty of 45 counts of technical burglary and

sentenced to 45 years in jail.

But he says the judge saw a spark inside the troubled and
neglected child and decided to give him a chance of
atonement.

After a year in juvenile detention, he was released on a

suspended sentence and offered a spot in the military on the condition that he would not commit another
crime.

'For me, it was a no-brainer,' he says. 'I knew if I went to maximum security for youth, a guy like me
probably wouldn't have a good experience.

Langley, Virginia, CIA HQ: By the age of 20, Kosta was working for the CIA tracking
money wired between warlords and radical sheiks in North Africa and the Middle East

As soon as he was eligible, he joined the Navy and was swiftly

stationed in the intelligence division, responsible for tracking money
wired between warlords and radical sheiks in North Africa and the
Middle East.

From there he was drafted into 'penetration testing on military

installations', in some of the first stages of technological warfare.

However, by the late 1990s, it began to dawn on Kosta that he

wanted to make more of his life than propping up the establishment and started one of the first
commercial websites focused on financial markets with his brother. In 1999 they sold it for tens of millions
of dollars.

Passion for games: After 9/11 he designed a computer simulation for the CIA to
imitate 'Las Vegas getting hit with a dirty bomb' using a game engine by the
company that developed Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon (pictured)

But the draw of the Government dollar pulled him back after 9/11
and he designed a military computer simulation to imitate 'Las
Vegas getting hit with a dirty bomb and how rescuers could lock
down the city.'

He had such fun with the simulation game, based on a game

engine by the company that developed Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, that he decided to focus all his powers
on making virtual worlds.

He says the draw of interactive entertainment is 'allowing people to create their own worlds [...] like
watching ants from above'.

Now Kosta runs game development firm 3G Studios Inc, a company that turns over more than $10 million a
year.
'I was an intelligent, rebellious youth, but my grades and attendance records weren't the sole indicators for
my potential contribution to society,' he says. 'Ultimately, society suffers when we're that myopic [but]
when you look a little deeper, as people did with me, you're able to get kids focused on their potential.'

His company also works closely with 'troubled youth', mentoring teens to help them find their way to
engage because 'that's something I owe to the people who helped me.'

A. Talk about these vocabulary words or phrases from the story:

go off the rails  (informal idiom)

to start behaving strangely or in a way that is not acceptable to society
He went off the rails in his twenties and started living on the streets.
myopic
lack of discernment or long-range perspective in thinking or planning
dotcom company/parental divorce/reign him in/chance of atonement/technological warfare/to dawn
on/
propping up the establishment/dirty bomb

B. Discuss these Questions:

1. What is most amazing about James Kosta?

2. What do you think was his biggest mistake?
3. Do you think the government was right in rescuing him from detention & then using him for their
purposes?
4. How is he helping youth like himself now?
5. Imagine how his life would have been different if he had not gotten into trouble so young. How
would his potential impact have been different?

C. Respond to this reader’s response to the article about James Kosta. Do you agree or disagree?
Why?

I would agree with the "troubled" description but "neglected"? Nope. His parents tried but a judge permitted
him to be emancipated so legally he became a "responsible adult" at age 14. Lol. Once the judge made that
ruling his parents had no legal rights concerning him anymore. Just because a kid knows how to make a lot
of money doesn't mean that he has the maturity to go along with it. Glad he was able to get his life onto a
better track but I wouldn't consider him neglected....unless one is willing to accuse the judge of allowing
said neglect by permitting the emancipation in the first place. Success isn't just about how much money a
person can earn.

tllupton , usa, 24/7/2012 20:18

Adapted from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2178132/Story-teen-hacker-CIA-agent-

multimillionaire.html#ixzz2KbStrfei By Matt Blake Published: 24 July 2012 | Huffington Post
Discussion and Question’s created by Jann