A computer hacker in America has agreed to pay a modest financial penalty in order to avoid potentially spending up to 500 years in jail.
The hacker, 28-year-old Fidel Salinas, is reportedly part of the hacker collective known as Anonymous, which last week launched a major cyberattack against the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) following the group’s threats to attack protesters in the stricken town of Ferguson.
But it seems that Salinas involvement with Anonymous was not part of the charges he faced from US authorities.
Salinas had reportedly hacked into the administrative website of Hidalgo County in October with the intent to gain unauthorized access, according to the NY Daily News. He was charged with one count of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
In the end however, Salinas opted to accept a plea agreement, and agreed to pay $10,000 (£6,324) in restitution. He also now only faces a year behind bars, because he pleaded guilty to a downgraded charge of a single misdemeanour. He had been accused of making more than 14,000 attempts to access the county website and several attempts to cyberstalk an unnamed victim.
But his lawyer is not happy, and alleges that US federal prosecutors threw the extra charges at him in an attempt to intimidate the hacker into an unfavourable plea or to damage his reputation.
“The more I looked at this, the more it seemed like an archetypal example of the Department of Justice’s prosecutorial abuse when it comes to computer crime,” Salinas’ defence attorney, Tor Ekeland, told Wired.
“It shows how aggressive they are, and how they seek to destroy your reputation in the press even when the charges are completely, fricking garbage,” he reportedly said.
Meanwhile on this side of the Atlantic, the co-founder of the Pirate Bay Gottfrid Svartholm Warg was sentenced to more time in prison in October, after a Danish court found him and a Danish co-defendant guilty of hacking.
Think you know about famous hackers? Try our quiz!
Tesla shareholders to be asked to reinstate Elon Musk's $56 billion pay package, days after…
Catching WhatsApp? Billionaire founder of Telegram claims encrypted platform will reach one billion users within…
Good news for Mark Zuckerberg as judge dismisses some claims in dozens of lawsuits alleging…
Consequences of Assembly Bill 886. Google begins removing California news websites from some search results
CEO Tim Cook during visit to Jakarta says Apple will look into building a manufacturing…
Introduction of digital services tax on tech firms will begin in 2024 Canadian government confirms,…