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Two hackers who separately profited from stealing personal and financial data have been sentenced in the US. Sergey Vovnenko was jailed for 41 months for hijacking computers and selling stolen credit card numbers. Eric Taylor, who stole and then published sensitive information about celebrities and public figures, received three years' probation. Both were also involved in attacks on security researcher Brian Krebs, who exposed their online criminal activity.
Mr Krebs said Vovnenko was one of the administrators of a discussion forum that traded in stolen payment cards and personal data, in a blogpost reporting the sentencing. [...]As well as serving a 41-month sentence, Vovnenko will also be supervised for three years following his release and must pay compensation of $83,368 (£67,000).
Taylor was arrested in 2012 as part of a massive series of raids on criminal hacker groups around the world, co-ordinated by the FBI. Taylor was a member of a hacker group that published some of the stolen data exposing sensitive information about celebrities, prominent public figures and ordinary Americans.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday February 21 2017, @04:24PM
Do we still use the term "Script kiddy"? Because that term leaps to mind when I think of a 16 year old "hacking" a couple celebrities.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday February 21 2017, @07:08PM
The proper term would have been "showed them the consequences of not using proper safeguards for sensitive information", had he kept publication to a proper minimum.
Three years of probation is an unusually lenient sentence for such a high-profile case...
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday February 21 2017, @07:33PM
Yes, I agree it's lenient, but, honestly, I think it's appropriate for a dumb kid. He gets a felony on his criminal record, and his probation terms probably prevent him from coming anywhere near the software industry where before being an idiot, he could've found a career.
I'm generally opposed to the huge penalties that seem normal in the US, and even more so for minors, so you won't see me complaining about how light he got off.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday February 21 2017, @07:54PM
Seconded. Realizing that dumb teens don't need decades in jail doesn't occur often enough to US prosecutors.
Of course Rachid Al-Islamyah would have gotten 15 years.