Convicted hackers from the LulzSec splinter group of the Anonymous hacktivists’ collective are now behind bars.
Sentenced at London’s Southwark Crown Court the young men are beginning their jail terms, and one has a suspended sentence but must do unpaid work in the community. Lawyer Sandip Patel, a prosecution barrister, has told Future Intelligence this is ‘a wake-up call’ for hackers everywhere. Ryan Cleary was sentenced to 32 months, Jake Davis gets 24 months, Ryan Ackroyd must serve 30 months and Mustafa Al-Bassam’s term of 20 months, is suspended for 2 years with 200 hours of unpaid work.
For the Crown Prosecution Service, Andrew Hadik said in a statement on the CPS website:
“To say it was all a bit of fun in no way reflects the reality of their actions. They were in fact committing serious criminal offences for which they have been successfully prosecuted. This case should serve as a warning to other cyber-criminals that they are not invincible.”
Prosecuting barrister Sandip Patel told FI the sentences reflectl the seriousness of the crimes, which included hacking into the CIA and the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency websites. He pointed out that the hackers had released details of names and addresses of officers in the Arizona police force and forced the financial collapse of a computer security company, HBGary Federal – throwing hundreds of people out of work and causing hardship and family breakdown.
Legal expert
Sandip Patel has specialist knowledge of cyber security. He was on the prosecution teams for the earlier UK case against Anonymous, the Facebook hacker case and the DarkMarket website hearing involving the US security services and FBI. Hear more of his comments here..Sandip Patel
