Posted by Orin Kerr:
"Record Sentence" for Computer Crime:
Several people have asked me what I think about the story about the AP
story, [1]Hacker Gets Record Sentence for a Computer Crime. The story
reports:
One of three Michigan men who hacked into the national computer
system of Lowe's hardware stores and tried to steal customers'
credit card information was sentenced Wednesday to nine years in
federal prison.
The government said it is the longest prison term ever handed
down in a computer crime case in the United States.
It's hard to be sure based on the press reports, but my sense is
that there really isn't anything interesting about this case. First,
this is not the longest prison term ever handed down in a computer
crime case. It's probably the longest for a computer intrusion crime,
but there are lots of computer crimes that don't involve computer
intrusions. For example, there have been many longer sentences for
Internet-related child sex offenses.
In terms of the sentence, it seems that Salcedo pled guilty to wire
fraud and hacking. His sentence would be determined like any other
sentence for an economic crime; the law treats all economics crimes as
the same (more or less). I don't know the details of the plea, but
assuming the Court applied the sentencing guidelines the range of
punishment would be determined by the dollar value loss of the crime
attempted. When a hacker is picking up credit card numbers, he can get
a lot of car numbers; a lot of card numbers means lots of damage and a
higher punishment. According to earlier press reports, there was a
[2]possible cooperation deal, but I gather it fell through.
Hard to know more without really digging into it. Thanks to [3]Scott
and the little law.com blurb thing over to the right for the link.
References
1. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1103138408230
2.
http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/hacking/story/0,10801,93708,00.html
3. http://www.dclawstudent.blogspot.com/
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