Hacker's record credit card theft fetches 20-year sentence

Confessed TJX hacker Albert Gonzalez was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for orchestrating one of the largest thefts of payment card numbers in history. The sentence, by US District Court Judge Patti Saris, is the lengthiest to be imposed in a US hacking or identity prosecution. Miami-based Gonzalez was also fined $25, …

[Destroy All Monsters]

Wake me up later

>>cost banks and their insurers as much as $200m

Small change these days. Waiter, put it on the bailout bill / war bill, will you?

[Anonymous Coward]

agreed

A 25yr stretch for a few bankers should have been the order of the day, they lost far more

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a good start

Hopefully when he gets sentenced for the other crimes next week, he'll end up with 50+ years without any possible parole ever.

[kain preacher]

@Destroy All Monsters

Small change these days. Waiter, put it on the bailout bill / war bill, will you?

What about the small banks and credit unions that didnt get bails. They got hit with this too.

[Neil Barnes]

I'm baffled by the defence argument

Why should it be that apparently suffering from Asperger's Syndrome is considered a defence against a criminal act?

Seems to me that irrespective of the mental state of the accused, the act took place by his actions. If his mental state is such that he is not responsible for his actions, then why is he out in the big bad world without some supervisory authority (and why haven't they been charged?); if he's considered responsible, then why should be considered as even a mitigating circumstance?

[Anonymous Coward]

It a ruse to escape accountability

The Asperger defense patented by McKinnon is an unscrupulous plot by dirtbags to try and escape accountability for their crimes. It's an insult to those who actually have this illness and everyone else who does not commit crimes. If I were the judge or jury I'd add ten years to the sentence to insure that these scumbags understand that their lies aren't going to save their arse from a long time in the slammer.

[Simon Langley]

Asperger syndrome

Sorry to be pedantic (I can't help it) but Asperger syndrome is one of the Autistic Spectrum Disorders and isn't an illness.

An illness is something you catch or that develops that could potentially be cured like influenza or chickenpox. Unfortunately, with ASDs there is no cure and no real prospect of one any more than there is a cure for blue eyes.

[Anonymous Coward]

Far too severe and far too unjust

If a person with Asperger's can inflict so much damage then there really has to be some contributory negligence on part of those claiming losses (true for any person with or without a condition).

That is the "too severe side dealt with and now for the unjust bit:

US finance sector brings western world and it's finances to it's knees, bleeding blood from many a nations ears with impact on jobs, security and strength of many nations but!

Here you are doods. Sorry the bonus isn't as high as last years but what the hey?

C'mon US - your justice regime can do far better than that.

[mrobaer]

the devil made me do it

Competent enough to be a snitch for the US Secret Service to a tune of 75k a year, but not enough to know right from wrong? Give me a break!