A teenage West Herts College student hacked the websites of Microsoft, Sony and Cambridge University before selling the software he created to cyber criminals for hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Adam Mudd, now 20, committed the crimes from his bedroom at his parents’ home in Toms Lane, Kings Langley.

He made £386,000 selling the malicious software he created as a 15-year-old to criminals, which was then used to carry out 1.7 million cyber attacks on companies and institutions the world over.  

He also targeted the Hempstead Road college where he was studying computer science at the time.

Mudd, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, admitted offences under the Computer Misuse Act and is due to be sentenced next week.