
Hacker known as Guccifer sentenced to 52 months in prison - hotgoldminer
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/guccifer-hacker-who-revealed-clintons-use-of-a-private-email-address-sentenced-to-52-months/2016/09/01/4f42dc62-6f91-11e6-8365-b19e428a975e_story.html
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dmix
> U.S. District Judge James C. Cacheris of Alexandria imposed a 52 month
> sentence, saying a tough penalty was needed to deter future hacking.

> “This epidemic must stop,” Cacheris said.

Will tough sentencing in US courts really dissuade future Romanian/foreign
hackers? I mean the US is _always_ giving out tough sentences for everything,
you'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.

If it wasn't tough sentencing it would be superfluous charges getting tagged
on, so any length is justifiable if you have a motivated prosecutor/judge or a
politicized case.

Although I may be reading too much into the judges rationalization.

~~~
eykanal
Not to mention that this "tough penalty" is LESS than what some poor schmuck
who was caught with 1 gram of LSD, for the first time, would get as a
_minimum_ sentence.

~~~
DanBC
One gram of LSD is a lot of LSD, since a single dose is about 100 ug. One gram
would be around 10,000 doses.

I think the drug war is fucking stupid, but still.

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mindslight
Plebs just aren't entitled to "no charges are appropriate in this case".

It's odd how people will contemplate past failed societies and file them as
some sort of barbaric "other". But this is what lawful corruption actually
looks like, right in front of our faces.

Even _disregarding_ the public service aspect, what exactly did he do that
warrants even four months in jail? But when "the law" really just serves as a
justifier for the powerful, actions that poke holes in the abstractions of
power are punished the harshest.

~~~
rybosome
Can you explain that further? Although I see Snowden as a whistleblower who
deserves legal protection, I'm not sure that I feel that way about Guccifer.
Though he may have exposed misdeeds, this information was not something
naturally in his possession as it was with Snowden; he had to force his way in
to private networks and accounts to retrieve it. Given also the Russian
interest in the upcoming US presidential election and in gaining access to
this sensitive data to influence the outcome towards the candidate they
prefer, I also see material harm done as a result (unlike Snowden, where the
nebulous "because Terrorism" was deployed to explain the damage done).

If you were referring to the fact that only his crime was punished while the
crimes of those he exposed were ignored, then I understand your point.

~~~
tanderson92
Why is there any particular Russian interest in this specific election? And
not the previous? (Obama ridiculed Romney for 1980s style thinking for calling
Russia our greatest geopolitical foe)

Could it be that you believe the narratives you find in major newspapers?

~~~
jljljl
Most reporting on this I've seen suggests that the DNC hack originated in
Russia, and that it had the trademarks of a Russian Intelligence action:

[http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-
meter/article/2016/jul/31/...](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-
meter/article/2016/jul/31/what-we-know-about-russias-role-dnc-email-leak/)

[https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/07/russian_hack_...](https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/07/russian_hack_of.html)

Is there any evidence that points to the contrary?

~~~
tanderson92
I don't know.

I do know that your (well-reasoned) point does not actually address my
question.

------
mfkp
> _Lazar stored megabytes of victims’ stolen private documents and turned them
> over to media outlets._

Megabytes? As in just a couple of pictures? That can't be right.

~~~
cmdrfred
999 megs is a lot of text.

~~~
quaresma
*1023

~~~
RKearney
Actually 999 MB is correct. Mega is an SI prefix meaning 10^6.

What you described is a binary prefix mebi, which means 2^20.

~~~
emodendroket
The use of the term "megabyte" to refer to the other measure predates the
coining of "mebibytes," which is used by rather few people. And as you can see
on that page, at least one standards body still uses "megabytes" for the
power-of-two units.

------
pavel_lishin
> _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._

Unless you're the FBI.

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jcoffland
> 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.

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, "unauthorized access
of a computer" will remain "justified" in the minds of hackers.

~~~
wmeredith
I don't agree with this logic. The government engages in all sorts of
activities that are illegal for citizens. Use of lethal force, for instance.

~~~
jcoffland
The problem is that the US government is engaging in activities that are
illegal for the US government. The government is not above the law.

------
nxc18
I really don't understand the comments here. My first response was "only 52
months?"

This guy broke into people's accounts by guessing passwords and then used the
identities of his victims to victimize others. How are people rationalizing
this as OK?

He's certainly not a white-hat hacker. He didn't publish work for the public
interest (Snowden). He didn't responsibly report a security vulnerability, as
there was no vulnerability beyond public figures using question-answer
authentication.

Think about if your accounts were hacked for the "crime" of being a public
figure's relative? Friend? I know you think "public figure" 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.

Finally, ask yourself if you can honestly say you'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'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'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?)

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

------
ajbetteridge
'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.'

Perhaps someone should pass this on to the NSA?

------
HackermanMad
I'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?

------
toyg
_> U.S. District Judge James C. Cacheris of Alexandria imposed a 52 month
sentence, saying a tough penalty was needed to deter future hacking.

“This epidemic must stop,” Cacheris said._

Funniest thing I've read all day.

~~~
DINKDINK
>A high school graduate, Lazar had no formal training or computer expertise.
He told the New York Times that he obtained access to high-profile people’s
email and social-media accounts by reading their Wikipedia pages and guessing
passwords based on their personal information.

If true, this is even more concerning.

~~~
pavel_lishin
To be fair, if you break into my house, I don't care if you've spent years
learning how to pick complicated locks without leaving a trace, or whether you
just batter the door down with a big hammer.

Although to call this a symptom of a "hacking epidemic" is ludicrous.

~~~
mpweiher
Dunno. Less like a hammer, more like picking up the spare key taped to the
wall with a big sign taped to the door that says "key taped to wall".

~~~
throwanem
If there's one thing I have learned in my time on Hacker News, it's that
likening software compromises to physical B&E or unlawful entry goes nowhere
that's useful to anyone.

~~~
treehau5
Then why do security experts do it all the time? My first few security courses
in my college computer science curriculum was filled with them, one of them
was a book co-authored by Schneier.

~~~
throwanem
Because they aren't interacting with an audience composed in significant part
of querulous pedants who will promptly proceed to poke every imaginable hole
into the metaphor, resulting in a vast and ultimately unproductive digression.

(As a querulous pedant myself, I can hardly condemn such behavior! But I do
try not to indulge that habit when doing so offers no benefit to anyone.)

------
exabrial
Seems like an inherent conflict of interest when he hacked the head of State
Department, and they're the ones that would be dealing with his extradition.

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yread
So such a long sentence probably means he wasn't cooperating with other
investigations, right?

~~~
tptacek
Is there any evidence that he'd have any means of cooperating with other
investigations? He seems like a garden-variety social engineer, like the
person who "hacked" their way to all those celebrity nudes a few years back.

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th0ma5
Is that a hard or soft G?

~~~
jonnathanson
It's meant to be pronounced like the brand "Gucci."

The name is a portmanteau of Gucci and Lucifer, using the Italian cc-
pronunciation of Gucci and not the soft-c of Lucifer. The G is hard.

------
vaadu
While Hillary's crimes get a pass.

~~~
treehau5
Love the fact these are getting down-voted, but it's the clear truth. Doesn't
matter if you folks want to hear it or not.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
True but off-topic is still off-topic. You want to talk about it here? Post a
story where it's on-topic, and we'll talk about it there.

------
Zikes
When asked if he hacked Hillary's email servers he replied "What, like with an
axe?"

