Albert Gonzalez 20 Years In Prison:Hacker Sentence
March 27, 2010 by Jerry Reth · 3 Comments
Albert Gonzalez 20 Years In Prison:Hacker Sentence – It appears as if the notorious hacker Albert Gonzalez will be doing twenty years of hard time in the prison. The hacker committed fiscal crimes using the Internet in 2006. The 28 year old was able to gain access to the numbers of millions of credit cards, and was able to run up a tab of $41 million that was funneled into various bank accounts. The man had access to nearly 130 million credit card numbers, and was able to gain access to the servers of several different companies before he was caught and his scam was exposed.
He committed the crime with as many as eleven different individuals, all of which will probably be sentenced to some jail time in the near future, provided that the evidence on the other suspects is able to hold up for the long term.
Gonzalez did not comment on the term, but representatives did say that that they would be seeking an appeal in the near future for the sentence. All of the money that he stole was returned to the individuals that he stole it from. It is believed that all of the individuals who took part in the scam have been caught. The defense noted that the young man had also had problems with alcohol and drugs in the past. This did not allow the young man to keep himself out of prison, but the judge said that he did take it into account. Gonzalez appeared to be calm as he was read his sentence, almost as if he expected the charges to bring him as much time as was read by the judge. He did not smile, he did not blink, he only looked at the desk as it was read.
I think he’s a hero, he got the job done and recived some money… what’s wrong with that?
The tone of the article is that 20 years is an excessive penalty for the crime. I disagree. While perhaps the death penalty would be excessively harsh, this lowlife stole at least $41 million, and he grossly inconvenienced 130 million people. The fact that he returned the money is irrelevant–he did it because he was caught, and he hoped to reduce his jail time. It had nothing to do with the severity of the crime or the goodness of his heart. Did he also reimburse his victims for all the time they had to spend to re-secure their credit and their identity, for lost work time, for damage to their credit scores?
Albert Gonzalez is not a hacker, he is an ambitious thief. The fact that he used a computer instead of a gun is irrelevant. He is a thief who stole $41 million, and he should be treated as such. Period. Credit and identity theft are a major scourge on today’s society. I hope Albert Gonzalez serves every minute of his 20-year sentence, and I hope the rest of his cohort do likewise. And if we can figure out how to keep them all away from computers for the rest of their lives, or go back to prison permanently, even better.
Yes this guy should be punished but twenty years may be excessive considering that we only put child molesters in for half that, who cause much more tragic damage and have higher recidivism rates. We should force nonviolent criminals like Gonzales to become productive members of society, just by tightening the leash and monitoring their actions closely.