Walter O'Brien

Walter O'Brien (born 24 February 1975 ) is an Irish businessman and information technologist.

He was also the executive producer and loose inspiration for the television series Scorpion.

He is known for claiming various accomplishments, including a childhood IQ of 197, which have been scrutinized and remain unproven.

Walter O'Brien was born to Maurice and Anne O'Brien in 1975 in Clonroche, County Wexford, Ireland.

The second of five children, he grew up on a farm.

He attended St. Patrick's National School in Courtnacuddy until his family moved to Rosshaven, when he was 13 years old.

There he attended St. Mary's Christian Brothers School, Enniscorthy.

O'Brien has stated he scored a 197 on an IQ test administered by one of his teachers in primary school but did not keep the paperwork.

Techdirt and The Irish Times said that O'Brien's 197 IQ score from childhood does not mean his intelligence exceeds that of other adults because scoring is scaled based on age.

Mike Masnick noted that of all the "top IQ" lists available online, each one is different and none contains O'Brien's name.

Susan Karlin questioned why, since O'Brien uses his childhood IQ score as part of his self-marketing, he did not retake the test through Mensa so that it could be confirmed.

After completing his Leaving Certificate at St Kieran's College in Kilkenny, O'Brien attended the University of Sussex where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and artificial intelligence.

According to the New Ross Standard, his interest in computers began when his primary school started offering a computer course.

O'Brien's father gave him livestock as payment for doing chores on the farm, which he sold in order to purchase an Amstrad personal computer at age nine, around 1984.

Other sources indicate that his interest began when he was 14 when his parents bought him a computer.

O'Brien has stated that when he was thirteen years old (c. 1988), he hacked into NASA under the pseudonym "Scorpion".

In an interview with Silicon Republic, an Irish technology news website, O'Brien claimed that the NSA, through Interpol, appeared at his home following the hack.

He told the agents he would help show them vulnerabilities in their network in exchange for not getting into trouble.

According to O'Brien, he had an extradition document ready in his backpack, but he could not provide more details on the deal that was made due to non-disclosure agreements.

French tabloid Telestar reported that there is no record of the alleged NASA hack.

Techdirt pointed out that the United States Department of Homeland Security—which CBS showed surrounding O'Brien's family's home in the television show—did not exist at the time of the alleged hack.

O'Brien allegedly founded Scorpion Computer Services at age 13 in 1988.

The Irish Times reported he brought the business with him in the late 1990s, after graduating from university and moving to the United States.

The New Ross Standard wrote that Scorpion Computer Services started as an IT tutoring service that expanded into security and risk management, and The Irish Times also described Scorpion Computer Services as an artificial intelligence company.

O'Brien was a member of the Irish team that participated in the 1993 International Olympiad in Informatics computer coding competition.

The university from which he graduated shows his team finished the 1993 Olympiad in 90th place out of 250.

A month after the bombing at the 2013 Boston Marathon, Fox 11 LA-KTTV (Los Angeles) reported that O'Brien's company, Scorpion Computer Services, Inc., developed video-analysis software similar to that used by the FBI to catch the bombers.

Techdirt said that this was one of many "bogus" claims about O'Brien by CBS.

Asher Langton, a security intelligence engineer, said O'Brien offered conflicting narratives of his contributions to catching the bombers and that the use of facial recognition software in the manner reported was implausible.

O'Brien said he was bound by non-disclosure agreements.

According to O'Brien, in an effort to promote his company Scorpion Computer Services, Inc. and its service Concierge Up, he came up with the idea to create a television show.

O'Brien contacted Scooter Braun who pitched the idea to CBS.

In 2014, O'Brien described his company as a think tank for "high IQ individuals".

O'Brien started Scorpion Studios, which advises film and television producers on how to make technology appear real.

In September 2014, CBS premiered the first season of the drama series, Scorpion, based on O'Brien's alleged life experiences.

He serves as an executive producer for the series, and regularly contributes to story development.

For his part in story development, O'Brien consults with series writers on technical aspects of the plot, including how he would solve problems presented in the show's scripts.

The technical aspects of the plot, however, were a reason for a review published on the website of the National Science Teachers Association to advise teachers to use the show as an example of incorrect or exaggerated science in 2015.

O'Brien also consults with Elyes Gabel, the actor who plays the fictional Walter O'Brien.

In an interview with CBS News to promote the second season, Gabel said about O'Brien that "he's out saving the world or talking to, you know, princes of Liechtenstein. So every now and again, I get the chance to talk to him and he'll call me up. And sometimes we talk about the show. Sometimes we talk about characters."