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Russia Jails Hacker For Spilling Top Government Officials' Secrets (reuters.com)

A Russian court sentenced a prominent hacker to two years in jail on Thursday after a secret trial which heard how he had accessed and leaked the email accounts of top government officials, Russian news agencies reported. From a report: The court found Vladimir Anikeyev, named as head of a famous hacking collective called Shaltai Boltai (Humpty Dumpty), guilty of illegally accessing computer data in collusion with a criminal group. The TASS news agency said he was accused of breaking into the email account of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's spokeswoman as well as the account of an official in the presidential administration among many others.

35 comments

  1. I'm guessing he's not part of an opposition party by ItsJustAPseudonym · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If he had been part of an 'opposition party', he'd also have been charged with embezzlement, given 10 years in jail, and forbidden from running for office, ever. That seems to be standard operating practice in Russia lately.

  2. Russia is hacking Russia? by guruevi · · Score: 3, Funny

    I thought it was Russia hacking the US, Now you're telling me Russia is hacking Russia?

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    1. Re:Russia is hacking Russia? by bobbied · · Score: 3, Insightful

      In mother Russia, you hack everybody but mother Russia....

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  3. Did by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did WikiLeaks and RT turn him down? Soooooo strange, really puzzling.

  4. Re: I'm guessing he's not part of an opposition pa by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They go easy on the first offender

  5. Re:First Time Anal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Enjoy your AIDS.

  6. Donald Trump sold him up the river. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Happy Birthday Putin!

  7. Re:I'm guessing he's not part of an opposition par by Plus1Entropy · · Score: 3, Informative

    Don't forget there's also the Russian opposition party early retirement plan: get shot on the footsteps of the Kremlin.

    --
    Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
  8. Re:I'm guessing he's not part of an opposition par by Nidi62 · · Score: 2, Informative

    You also have to watch out for people with umbrellas and should stay away from drinking tea.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  9. Russians are such lightweights by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    A hacker sentenced to only two and a half years with 8 months time served? Geez, that guy is lucky he wasn't caught and tried in the US like that Guccifer dude who got 52 months for hacking into the email accounts of Prez Bush, some celebrities, and Clinton hatchet man, Sid Blumenthal.

  10. He should escape to the US by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    Obviously, this hacker should escape from Russia to the US, and then we can trade Snowden for him in a swap.

    Right?

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    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    1. Re:He should escape to the US by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ha ha, and risk 5 life sentences for the same crime?

  11. Lame joke, but too bad. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

    In Soviet Russia, irony laughs at you.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
    1. Re:Lame joke, but too bad. by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 0

      In Soviet Russia, no one laughs at irony because irony is normal...

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  12. Re:I'm guessing he's not part of an opposition par by Zontar_Thing_From_Ve · · Score: 0

    Don't forget there's also the Russian opposition party early retirement plan: get shot on the footsteps of the Kremlin.

    In all seriousness, the fact that they didn't just have some underlings "get rid of him" and are pretending to obey rule of law suggests that he's not guilty at all of what they claim and he's being sent up for something else (ie. political activities they don't like) or they've got someone in prison waiting to "take care of the problem".

  13. What about Snowden by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are they sending him back to the US?

  14. Re: I'm guessing he's not part of an opposition pa by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Particularly if they are being prosecuted as part of a cover story for Putin ordering the hacking of US politician's emails...

    With this in place, they can now claim that "It's those darn hackers, no government involvement... see, they even hack us"

    Just stock and trade for Russian agit-prop, this guy will prolly get goodies and a girl in his cell, if in fact he is ever imprisoned

  15. Hypocrite much? by correction · · Score: 0

    Isn't Russia the one who harbours and applauds hackers who release state secrets? Russia really is hypocritical, run by selfish thugs

    1. Re:Hypocrite much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No. Leaking MY secrets is bad, leaking OTHERS' secrets is good (for me). Each government has laws that benefit itself at the expense of others...nothing surprising in that.

  16. Re:I'm guessing he's not part of an opposition par by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah all the American guys, Foster, Rich, and those Wall Street bankers committed suicide... riiight.

    See, I can recite conspiracy theories too!

    The only real difference between us and them is the quality of the facade. The Russian's is a bit more drab.

  17. Re:I'm guessing he's not part of an opposition par by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, and do not take evening walks in Moscow, just ask Boris Nemtsov... oh yeah he's dead

  18. Re:I'm guessing he's not part of an opposition par by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If he were an American doing it in the US, he'd get something similar to what you're writing about. Russia seems to have much more reasonable terms for "hacking".

  19. In Soviet Amerika, Government Hacks You by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Someone's going to hack Twitler, get caught, and get a 25 year sentence.

    He'll whinge about it and compare his sentence to what this Russian guy got, and the American Nazi Party<Ctrl-H><Ctrl-H><Ctrl-H><Ctrl-H><Ctrl-H><Ctrl-H><Ctrl-H><Ctrl-H><Ctrl-H><Ctrl-H><Ctrl-H><Ctrl-H><Ctrl-H><Ctrl-H><Ctrl-H><Ctrl-H><Ctrl-H><Ctrl-H><Ctrl-H><Ctrl-H>Alt Right will call him a libtard, a precious snowflake, and a bad hombre, and inform us he's getting what he deserves.

    Remember, you heard it here first.

  20. The "Green" Party by Tablizer · · Score: 2

    And don't forget about Smurfication.

    One is either very brave, very naive, or suicidal to run against, or even speak up against Putin. He's pure liquid KGB. Russia is a democracy in name only.

  21. Re:I'm guessing he's not part of an opposition par by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 2

    If he was a Democrat party member who was going to reveal information, he'd just get a few bullets in the back and have it claimed to be a "robbery" where nothing was taken...

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  22. On the other hand by s.petry · · Score: 1

    In the US, truly good hackers are generally given limited sentences as long as they promise to work for the government and not break the law in the future. I'm guessing that Russia has a similar policy.

    A 2 year sentence for that type of crime is relatively light. In the US, the minimum sentence is 5 years _per_ criminal act (which does a good job of explaining the Aaron Schwartz suicide.) As with government employment, I'm guessing Russia would have similar sentencing.

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    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  23. Re: I'm guessing he's not part of an opposition pa by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You mean like the sudden death of Republican operative Peter W. Smith, who had a direct connection to Russia, 10 days after he spoke to the press?

  24. Re: I'm guessing he's not part of an opposition pa by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    Besides, the jail is located at a Black Sea resort, it's more like a vacation.

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    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  25. Re:I'm guessing he's not part of an opposition par by rtb61 · · Score: 2

    If he had been an American in America and did that to an American government, he would have got a life sentence or worse a death sentence, so what the fuck is your point. Fuck the stupid what ifs, fucking hell, the dude only got 2 years.

    --
    Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  26. Re:I'm guessing he's not part of an opposition par by ItsJustAPseudonym · · Score: 1

    You mean, "hacking in the U.S." equals "ten years in jail"? Exactly so.

  27. Re:I'm guessing he's not part of an opposition par by roman_mir · · Score: 1

    He may or may not be part of any opposition party but when he broke into Medvedev's email the information that came out provided the opposition with enough evidence to start a large investigation (which ended up posted as a video) into corruption that made Medvedev a billionaire.

    Currently Navalny is in jail for 25 days from the 12th of June (8 days after his birthday) until the 7th of July for being popular enough that people listened to him and came out to protest corruption on the 12th of June across Russia.

    Navalny and his team put together 'He is not a Dimon for you' (with English subtitles)

  28. Re:I'm guessing he's not part of an opposition par by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The USA is way worse, though. You had yet another liberal terrorist try to take out your entire government at a baseball game! As usual, anytime an american says something bad about Russia, it's just projecting your own unmatched evil on US.

  29. Re:I'm guessing he's not part of an opposition par by ItsJustAPseudonym · · Score: 1

    My point, as you have fucking confirmed, is that he got only two years. Other guys in Russia have gotten worse for being in an opposition party. That's paradoxical with the situation in the U.S., where hackers get extremely (some would say stupidly) heavy sentences, but being in the opposition party is essentially a non-issue. We have been discussing this in the thread here.

  30. For show... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This was a show trial. If Putin really cared, this guy would have been dead long ago...