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Stratfor Hacker Could Be Sentenced to Life, Says Judge
dgharmon writes with this excerpt from rt.com: "A pretrial hearing in the case against accused LulzSec hacker Jeremy Hammond this week ended with the 27-year-old Chicago man being told he could be sentenced to life in prison for compromising the computers of Stratfor. Judge Loretta Preska told Hammond in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday that he could be sentenced to serve anywhere from 360 months-to-life if convicted on all charges relating to last year's hack of Strategic Forecasting, or Stratfor, a global intelligence company whose servers were infiltrated by an offshoot of the hacktivist collective Anonymous. Hammond is not likely to take the stand until next year, but so far has been imprisoned for eight months without trial. Legal proceedings in the case might soon be called into question, however, after it's been revealed that Judge Preska's husband was a victim of the Stratfor hack."
8 months with no trial has completely violated his constitutional rights, therefore the state should not be able to charge him.
Murderers don't always receive life sentences. I wasn't aware the "life" of a corporation was more important than the rest of us.
meanwhile rapists and murders get off in 5-10
truly is a corporate run government.
and get bailed out. Maker some intelligence company look like chumps and get life in prison. I know its the states but what happened to the punishment should fit the crime?
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Crabtree notes that Hammond ... has also since been added to a terrorist watch list.
So hacking into a Corporation will now get you labelled as a Terrorist and could land you life in prison.
Seems that being a plain ol' armed robber and/or murderer would net you far less severe a punishment.
Seems that if a crime happens on the internet, the punishment is automatically increased 10 fold from it's brick and mortar counter-parts.
I agree that the guy is getting unfairly treated (and charged, etc), but your logic sucks - no matter how flimsy the door, it's still B&E.
The fucked-up part is, physically breaking and entering into the datacenter would likely have gotten him less potential jail time than busting in digitally.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Oh I murdered a couple of families on the eastern seaboard, luckily all I got was life. You?
I uh..hacked a computer network..
Aw Frell this
http://stephan.sugarmotor.org
I'm thinking the possible penalties are more related to the sensitivity of the items taken, and less related to the method of obtaining it.
It is almost universal that the defendant waives their right to a speedy trial on the advice of their attorney. Otherwise, their attorney would have to put on a defense far sooner that they would be ready.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
You sir are simply a sadist.
Even without experiencing the horrible torture you propose, you are already as cruel and depraved as if you had.
I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
It is in a state with crowded jails and early release for not violent crime. It would be time served if he went to court today. Ironically, he would have had his day in court, had it been physical B&E, 4-5 months ago.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
Corporations are virtual entitty. He tried to fuck with "priveledged" people, so he must be severely punished in order to demonstrate the power to other peasants. Sending a message is more important than any peasents' business.
And I'm not being sarcastic.
So when the U.S government hacks into foreign government servers and causes damage it's patriotic but a u.s citizen it's criminal. What about government monitoring every aspect of the web including your emails(email and mail same shit) without a court warrant. Anyway, the judge violated parts of the Title 28 of the United States Code, The judge by law cannot take a case where his own family member is involved in which it might affect his decision making he/she no longer impartial, and it showed. The hacker was held for that long with no bond or speedy trial, decision made by the judge, it's illegal. If this is the fault of the patriot act or ndaa for holding him without trial we are all fucking screwed. Unfortunately, when high officials abuse human rights they get fired and never see jail time. This whole government is acting like a fucking monarchy, like they are all kings or fucking special. Government will never work because people are corrupt by nature this is why we should build machines with impartial behavior built in their cpu to rule us all.
That or you'll create someone who is so disaffected with society that they will end their own life approximately three months after coming out, in a way that involves a hail of bullets and a packed shopping mall.
Some people break under pressure. Other people, well, they snap. You going to take the chance on which one Hammond is?
This is without going into the particularly virulent sadism you seem to exhibit. Some people, just want to see some poor sod burn, eh?
09F9 1102 9D74 E35B D841 56C5 6356 88C0
360 months (30 years) to life? Who the fuck has seen the inside of a jail cell, for any of the numerous unending scandals behind the financial crisis, that have impoverished and will impoverish many more people still? Who has seen the inside of a jail cell for engaging in war crimes, in a war of aggression, that after WWII was enshrined as one of the principle most evil acts a country can undertake? Who has seen the inside of a jail cell, for illegally spying on their citizenry, or for sanctioning that? For murdering other countries citizens (and even some of their own) in drone strikes?
Fuck off with this utter bullshit; this guy was caught and should spend time in prison for what he did, but the length of the sentence they are going after is hideously gratuitous; this is the totally unaccountable elite trying to make an example out of someone, for giving enough of a shit to fight back, and reveal information that embarrasses that elite.
I don't pretend that this guy or Anonymous in general work with noble intentions, it's plainly obvious many of them do it just because they like the attention and drama of high-profile hacks, and useful information gained is often incidental, but there's a lot to be said for the civil disobedience aspect of these attacks on establishment institutions; much of the information gained from Stratfor provided a valuable service to the public interest, and this guys attack should be treated as an act of civil disobedience, meriting the same level of outrage defense, of someone getting a similarly gratuitous sentence for trespassing while protesting.
This is a government that already massively invades everyones privacy through surveillance, and is trying to gratuitously expand their attacks on peoples privacy through massive expansions on monitoring the whole Internet in the US, with the legal ability to invade anyones online and personal lives.
If they're going to try and invade peoples privacy to such a huge degree, people should fucking fight back and legitimize digging dirt on government and connected establishment institutions through hacking, as an act of civil disobedience; if they want to invade peoples privacy and lives, but try to remain opaque and unaccountable, people should fucking well force transparency onto them, and be ready to face the legal consequences, and defend those that get caught up in gratuitous cases such as these.
The prosecution certainly has as much time as it wants. It can gather evidence indefinitely, gaining as much of a head-start against the defense as it would like, before filing charges. In essence, when the prosecutor files charges, that's saying "OK, I'm ready, let's go."
To allow the defense to have as much time as it would like, but not require the defendant to give up their right to a speedy trial at the same time, would only make sense. It's already impossible for the defense to have as much time to prepare a case as the prosecution has. There's no reason someone should have to give up their right to not sit in jail waiting for a trial indefinitely just because their defense needs a little more time to prepare a response, when the prosecution essentially had all the time in the world. ...but then, making sense isn't all that common, so who knows...
If Jeremy Hammond actually did commit the crimes of which he is accused (and remember he is legally entitled to the presumption of innocence), then he deserves to be punished. But it's very difficult to think of any situation where life in prison would be appropriate for what is basically a small-scale hack of the type that happens dozens if not hundreds of times every day. Stratfor is a company with 70 employees. The local library where I work has more employees than that, and probably more patrons than Stratfor has customers. If someone hacked our databases, do you think the authorities would investigate the complaint as seriously, much less try to sentence the hacker to life in prison? If someone hacked into the poorly-secured credit card data from a small restaurant and did the same amount of damage, would the authorities be treating him or her as Public Enemy No. 1? It's hard to avoid the conclusion that Hammond is being pursued with such vigor not because he broke the law, but because he committed offenses against politically powerful people, the clientele of Stratfor. (According to Wikipedia, "the company's publicity list includes Fortune 500 companies and international government agencies.") While this may not be surprising, it's a clear violation of the Constitution and needs to be fought against.
National security is irrelevant when the apparent felony was a computer based attack committed against a tiny clipping agency that didn't even have a full time guy to look after their computers.
..because YOU Advocate Excessive Punishment. This guy fucked up and deserves one or two years jail, not life.
Reread what I said. In no way, shape or form do I "advocate excessive punishment" (you don't really need to capitalize every word in the phrase).
I said he deserves a fair and impartial trial with no taint of impropriety.
As to "he fucked up".
The man is a SERIAL fuckup. He's already fucked up and been charged for his "fuckups" multiple times. He keeps doing it.
He didn't go into this blind. Not knowing the consequences of his actions.
He ALREADY spent TWO YEARS IN FEDERAL PRISON for a similar hack (again, breaking into a site of someone with a political ideology other than his own and stealing financial info).
So arguing that somehow didn't know the consequences of his actions is flat-out bullshit.
At best, he misjudged the MAGNITUDE of his consequences.
As a serial offender, he requires something a bit more significant than a two year vacation at Club Fed.
Does he deserve life?
Probably not. But his return to society should be protracted enough to insure he understands the consequences of his actions (two years in prison weren't enough to keep him from doing it again) and never, EVER wants to do something this stupid again.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!