In a classic case of what can happen when card data sharing goes professional, Butler was arrested in September 2007 and accused of operating Carders Market, an illegal forum on the internet where cybercriminals traded payment card details.

What Butler did not know when he was negotiating with one JK Mularski, was that it was an FBI sting which took the FBI agent and his team more than two years to set up.

Despite pleading guilty, he could face up to 60 years in prison for his offences, although the former security consultant is widely expected to receive a five to eight year jail term when he is sentenced in October.

In his legal team's statement to the court, his lawyer noted that Butler has always preferred using his extraordinary computer skills - his `computer vision' - for the good of society and the cyberworld.

"He hopes that he will be given the opportunity in the future to once again don the white hat."