[4] 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.

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[1] at age nine, around 1984.

[9] 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.

[3] 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.

[9] 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.

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

[3][8][12] O'Brien started Scorpion Studios, which advises film and television producers on how to make technology appear real.

[13] 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.

[4] 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.

[6][16] In September 2014, CBS premiered the first season of the drama series, Scorpion, based on O'Brien's alleged life experiences.

[17] 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.

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.

[6][24] Karlin points out that community-edited business directories data may be unreliable, and O'Brien stated that most of the company consists of independent contractors who work remotely.

There's also no evidence of the NASA hack and O'Brien can't provide further details claiming he signed a non-disclosure agreement.