LulzSec Member Pleads Not Guilty In Stratfor Leak Case

TheGift73 writes with an update on one of the many LulzSec court cases. From the article: "A former LulzSec member has pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he hacked into the servers of global intelligence company Stratfor and stole credit card data and personal details of 860,000 of its clients. Jeremy Hammond entered the plea on Monday during a brief hearing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the Associated Press reported. He's been held in federal custody since an initial court appearance in Chicago in early March, when federal prosecutors named him as a lieutenant of LulzSec ringleader Hector Xavier 'Sabu' Monsegur. There was no request for Hammond to be released on bail during Monday's hearing, according to the AP report."

Comments

Evidence...

[sortadan]

Since they arrested him they must have some good idea that its him, but it will be interesting to see what evidence they have, how it was collected, and how they can show it was only he who could have done the deed. With how easy it is to remotely control computers and especially if he had a wifi router, who's to say that his computer wasn't rooted and someone remotely did what he is accused of.

Re:Evidence...

[philip.paradis]

I believe you've missed the point. Let me rehash it for you. Most people don't shut down their computers, or even put them into standby mode, when they step away from them to run a quick errand. For example, let's say a guy by the name of Leeth Axor decides he's temporarily grown weary of attaining world domination via proxy kiddie antics, and he's suddenly got a deep and abiding thirst for an ice cold Mega Caf Thirsty Boy Gulp fountain beverage. So he heads down to Snacks 'R Us on the corner to obtain said energy boosting goodness.

On the way to Snacks 'R Us, he's accosted by several young toughs who inquire as to the value of his footwear, but I digress. That's beside the point. What's important here is the fact that young Leeth has stepped away from his console (probably didn't even lock it, meaning his pants are indeed very baggy). Let's assume for the sake of argument that Captain Federali has a few of his mates monitoring our buddy Leeth's domicile via various means, including physical/photographic/videographic surveillance, in addition to Ultra Happy Fun network taps on his Super Badass Ultra Upgraded Home Broadband Connection, slurping up both his wireless emanations (did he really think SUPRHAX0R was a great key, really?) and sitting on a tap at the local coax/fiber interface as well. Thanks, Local ISP!

Now, the fun thing about in-depth physical and network surveillance is El Capitan's boys have a pretty darn good idea whether or not our hero's workstation is active or in a zombified state. You see, even when he's not actively using it to perpetrate acts of Great Justice upon the Evil Corporate Overlords of the world, that darn workstation is just a chirpin' away on the network anyhow. Sure, anything of value is ostensibly encrypted, but you gotta understand: that doesn't really matter here. Anyhow, I'm digressing again, I'll get to that last point in a minute. The key point here is this lets the Boys in Blue (well, cheap dark blue suits anyhow, or maybe coveralls to go with the construction logo on their van, whatever) know that ye olde workstation is, in fact, still lit up like a frat boy crashing his first sorority party on the gosh darned network.

Man, you know what? I was gonna keep this thing rolling, get into all sorts of fun anecdotes about MITM attacks, the potential for major CAs to be compromised by government actors, fun stories about naughty hardware/software injection combos, all sorts of stuff really. I really did mean to get to the part about how in the end it doesn't even matter if young Leeth actually powers his workstation off stone cold every time he goes to take a crap. The trouble is, I'm kinda tired right now, so you're just gonna have to wait until tomorrow (maybe, or maybe the next day, I dunno) for the rest of the gripping tale. Sorry to let you down tonight, but never fear, you'll get to hear the whole story eventually. Peace out for now, champ.

Been there, done that.

[droopus]

I spent 52 months in Feds from 2006 - 2010. IMVHO, this is what's happening, at least on the legal side. He will never get bail. He's innocent till proven guilty, of course, but fed bail is supposedly all about flight risk. "Danger to the community" implies guilt so it can't be used..technically. The question for the Magistrate (who usually decides bail, not the Trial Judge) is: does a set of conditions exist which will assure the defendant's appearance at court? And that, is typically up to the US Attorney or AUSA. I did not get bail and was held at Donald W Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls, RI for 22 months before finally pleading out.

If Hammond goes to trial, he will never get out. 92% of all fed criminal cases plead out. Why? Because when the choice is possibly three mandatory life sentences vs five years, you end up taking the lesser of two evils. The Feds add all sorts of sentencing enhancements to make it so risky to roll the dice with a jury, it just isn't worth it. I was not guilty of the offense it was claimed I committed, but I couldn't risk the rest of my life on being able to convince 12 people too stupid to get out of jury duty.

Hammond's other option is USSG 5K1.1 (Sentence reduction for substantial assistance in convicting another criminal.) The Government must submit a motion for this reduction, IF they like what you snitch. There are other options such as the Safety Valve (for which Hammond is not eligible due to previous offenses. Rapper T.I. got out of prison after like 18 months for machine guns and silencers because he gave the Government substantial assistance. Real gangsta.

If Hammond miraculously gets out anytime within the next ten years, he got a 5K1.1, most likely. When the feds want you, you're fucked.