Hacker known as Guccifer sentenced to 52 months in prison

&gt; U.S. District Judge James C. Cacheris of Alexandria imposed a 52 month sentence, saying a tough penalty was needed to deter future hacking.<p>&gt; “This epidemic must stop,” Cacheris said.<p>Will tough sentencing in US courts really dissuade future Romanian&#x2F;foreign hackers? I mean the US is <i>always</i> giving out tough sentences for everything, you&#x27;d basically factor that in already if were to get caught and they put all that effort into extraditing you to the US. Seems like par for the course.<p>If it wasn&#x27;t tough sentencing it would be superfluous charges getting tagged on, so any length is justifiable if you have a motivated prosecutor&#x2F;judge or a politicized case.<p>Although I may be reading too much into the judges rationalization.

Plebs just aren&#x27;t entitled to &quot;no charges are appropriate in this case&quot;.<p>It&#x27;s odd how people will contemplate past failed societies and file them as some sort of barbaric &quot;other&quot;. But this is what lawful corruption actually looks like, right in front of our faces.<p>Even <i>disregarding</i> the public service aspect, what exactly did he do that warrants even four months in jail? But when &quot;the law&quot; really just serves as a justifier for the powerful, actions that poke holes in the abstractions of power are punished the harshest.

&gt; <i>Lazar stored megabytes of victims’ stolen private documents and turned them over to media outlets.</i><p>Megabytes? As in just a couple of pictures? That can&#x27;t be right.

&gt; <i>A maximum punishment “would also help address any false perception that unauthorized access of a computer is ever justified or rationalized as the cost of living in a wired society — or even worse, a crime to be celebrated,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Maya D. Song wrote.</i><p>Unless you&#x27;re the FBI.

&gt; A maximum punishment “would also help address any false perception that unauthorized access of a computer is ever justified or rationalized as the cost of living in a wired society — or even worse, a crime to be celebrated,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Maya D. Song wrote.<p>If the US judicial system is serious about that statement they should be addressing the blatant violations of the law perpetrated by the NSA and FBI. As long as our own elite groups engage in hacking crimes, &quot;unauthorized access of a computer&quot; will remain &quot;justified&quot; in the minds of hackers.

I really don&#x27;t understand the comments here. My first response was &quot;only 52 months?&quot;<p>This guy broke into people&#x27;s accounts by guessing passwords and then used the identities of his victims to victimize others. How are people rationalizing this as OK?<p>He&#x27;s certainly not a white-hat hacker. He didn&#x27;t publish work for the public interest (Snowden). He didn&#x27;t responsibly report a security vulnerability, as there was no vulnerability beyond public figures using question-answer authentication.<p>Think about if your accounts were hacked for the &quot;crime&quot; of being a public figure&#x27;s relative? Friend? I know you think &quot;public figure&quot; only means politician, but to make this thought exercise more real, remember that Linus Torvalds, Steve Wozniak, celebrity startup CEOs (the types of people many of you want to someday become), etc. are public figures as well.<p>Finally, ask yourself if you can honestly say you&#x27;ve never broken a law; never had a moment that affected others negatively; never did anything that the public could judge you for. If you don&#x27;t pass all those tests, consider whether anyone could pass those tests, and then consider whether Hillary or anyone else should be expected to. (Unlike you, Hillary and many others probably didn&#x27;t grow up with internet, or email, or the concept of basic things like legal equality for African Americans - will you find it easy to pass the test of public perception for your past actions 20 years from now? 30 years from now? 40?)

Why is he being sentenced? Clinton and FBI said she had nothing to hide.

&#x27;A maximum punishment “would also help address any false perception that unauthorized access of a computer is ever justified or rationalized as the cost of living in a wired society — or even worse, a crime to be celebrated,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Maya D. Song wrote.&#x27;<p>Perhaps someone should pass this on to the NSA?

I&#x27;m not US citizen but what could be done (by me or other people) to support this guy? To reduce and expose this abuse of power and corruption by the US government so that things would get better? Are there organisations for that?

<i>&gt; U.S. District Judge James C. Cacheris of Alexandria imposed a 52 month sentence, saying a tough penalty was needed to deter future hacking.<p>“This epidemic must stop,” Cacheris said.</i><p>Funniest thing I&#x27;ve read all day.

Seems like an inherent conflict of interest when he hacked the head of State Department, and they&#x27;re the ones that would be dealing with his extradition.

So such a long sentence probably means he wasn&#x27;t cooperating with other investigations, right?

Is that a hard or soft G?

While Hillary&#x27;s crimes get a pass.

When asked if he hacked Hillary&#x27;s email servers he replied &quot;What, like with an axe?&quot;