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Lucas was 16 when he got into trouble for hacking his school computers. Twice.<\/b><\/p>\n
“It was like a challenge to see if I could,” he told the BBC.<\/p>\n
He wanted access to play games and visit blocked websites so he started tinkering with programming.<\/p>\n
At one point he even unscrewed the computer tower to take some internal components home for tests.<\/p>\n
“It’s quite a sense of achievement when you’ve succeeded in doing something that two or three trained professionals have spent a lot of time trying to stop you doing,” he said. <\/p>\n
He was close to being expelled – but his worried mother had no idea how serious his actions were.<\/p>\n
She called the police and invited an officer from the nationwide programme Cyber Choices to their home in rural Cumbria.<\/p>\n
“My mum was like, ‘ooh, you’ve got a detective coming to speak to you, you’re in a lot of trouble’,” Lucas said.<\/p>\n
“So I was sat at the window waiting. Who’s going to come? How much trouble am I going to be in?”<\/p>\n
PC Sam Cooper, a cyber prevent officer, knocked on the door earlier this year and he has been working with Lucas ever since.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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