Felony charges? Harsh! Alleged Anon hackers plead guilty to misdemeanours

Rules for Prosecutors

1) Always tell the world the MAXIMUM Sentence possible. It makes them look good.

2) Throw the book at the perp. The more charges the better. Then they are more likely to make a deal

3) EVERYONE is guilty of breaking laws, even Felonies. They don't know it, but you do. More barganing power.

There is a downside but they rarely have to face it

-1) Be prepared to face the wrath of the Judge in a case where you press for multiple Felonies when the crime is really nothing more than a mistemanour.

This only happens when the 'perp' refuses a deal and goes to trial.

The cases shown here make sobering reading

http://www.threefeloniesaday.com/Youtoo/tabid/86/Default.aspx

Just the tip of the Iceberg folks.

No jailtime or fines necessary

Probation on the condition that they are banned from using the internet for 24 months.

If this were a standard penalty it should deter the vast majority of future anon wannabees.

It upsets the people who bought paid for their elections so go to come down hard on it.

Seems like standard procedure

I've been a sysadmin at several companies. I was taught to keep rigorous account of any costs related to an intrusion response. Service downtime can be lost revenue and brand damage. Hours spent to diagnose and clean up become "billable" as business costs. Of course, you track direct costs like new hardware or outside consulting.

If the company chooses to report the crime, law enforcement will be less interested in a $200 attack than a $10000 one or a $2.1M attack. It's not always in the victim's interest to minimize the reported damages. Conversely, the accused doesn't always plead guilty to the maximum charges.

While it's true that sometimes a company will scapegoat a front-line employee (sysadmin, helpdesk staffer, whatever), that's rarely the whole story. If a sysadmin knowingly left a vulnerability, it's more likely that they were unable to get the resources to fix it -- and an experienced person will keep records of this. A business has to manage many risks, and won't always make computer security the highest priority.

Some anonymous fool wrote that "I cant see how they allow so much zero day vulnerable software to be sold. That in itself is a crime." By definition, a zero-day has not been reported with any time to test or patch it. If you don't know how people make products with unsuspected problems, you should try working for a day.

Funny isn't it?

Put on an NSA hat and you get paid instead.

It's simple

The U.S. and UK judicial systems are light years behind the digital age and the crims. Japan has the proper approach with mandatory 2 yr. prison sentences for pirates and 10 years minimum prison for facilitators of piracy and hackers, along with stiff fines. Every single hacker should do these minimum prison sentences or more. The naïve and gullible people who view hacking and piracy as insignificant are unfortunately braindead and clueless. Until laws catch up to the digital age very unscrupulous crims will continue to rape and pillage society with almost no punishment - because they can.

" authorities point to the costs to businesses in damages "

In a country being run by businesses, it is no surprise that offending them brings the heaviest charges on your head.

"Collins and three other defendants, Anthony Tadros, Thomas Bell and Geoffrey Commander called their pleas in on the misdemeanour offence yesterday."

Did they find out who was in charge?