GETTY Autistic people are vulnerable to sliding into cyber crime

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The warning comes as the National Crime Agency - Britain's version of the FBI - is looking into links between autism and cyber crime after many alleged hackers were found to have the condition. Among them is Lauri Love, 31, who has Asperger syndrome and is battling extradition to the US where he faces up to 99 years in prison for allegedly hacking into Nasa and Federal Reserve computers. A British judge is due on Friday to rule on whether he will be sent to America to stand trial. Love has not entered formal pleas to any of the charges and insists that if he must stand trial it should be in Britain. Richard Mills, the research director at Research Autism and co-author of a study published last year on autism and cybercrime, said he suspected some autistic individuals are "drifting" into crime while exploring the murky world of online gaming and forums.

He said: "Based on our preliminary study we would say that there is a perception that autistic individuals are much more vulnerable to becoming involved in this kind of offending. "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 behaviour from the point of view of others. "Because they are very good at coding and recognising patterns they can be exploited by organised crime." Rebecca Ledingham, who used to work in cyber crime at Interpol, said that she first noticed a lot of hackers had autism traits while at the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) some years ago.

GETTY Many alleged hackers were found to have the condition

She added that the internet can give autistic people the things they crave - attention, company and friendship. But once online some can turn to crime. She said: "I don't believe they are groomed, but they have a skill set that is desirable online as many have a natural aptitude for computers and technology and they tend to cross that boundary of what they should be doing to what they shouldn't be doing quite easily. "Many are involved in the gaming community online which has a very active forum membership. "Forum activity can expose them to illegal activities they would not normally partake in offline.

GETTY National Crime Agency is looking into links between autism and cyber crime

"They talk to people online who they would not meet in real life and because of the autism they are very naive, they are a poor judge of character. "Having the ability to hack, code or generate malware gets you a lot of kudos, adulation and status online that these people would never ever get in real life." Lauri Love's father Alexander called for autism screening in schools and more programmes to channel the energy of those with the condition.

Rev Mr Love, a Baptist minister from Suffolk, said: "It is a bit like the dark side and the light side in Star Wars - if we don't give them positive ways to channel their energy then they end up getting stuck into something else. "We create a vacuum and they end up going down a route that is not helpful for them or anyone else." Labour MP Barry Sheerman, whose young grandson has autism, said that to some, hacking became "a game". He said: "These people are not doing it for the money, they are doing it to see if they can.

GETTY Autistic individuals are much more vulnerable to becoming involved in cyber crime