On Friday [April 21] a U.S. federal court handed down the longest prison sentence for hacking in the nation's history. Russian hacker Roman Seleznev - who is the son of Putin ally in the Russian Parliament, Valery Seleznev - was convicted of milking $169 million from point-of-sale computers. He has been ordered to serve 27 years behind bars for the crime.
Seleznev has a history of hacking financial institutions, mostly in the Seattle area, that goes back to 2014, when he was busted with 1.7 million credit card numbers on his laptop. Friday's sentencing comes after he went down on 38 counts of wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and other hacking-related crimes. Prosecutors characterized him as a "pioneer" who "became one of the most revered point-of-sale hackers in the criminal underworld."
After Seleznev learned his dreadful fate, US Attorney Annette Hayes addressed the press on the trial's outcome, stating, "Today is a bad day for hackers around the world... The notion that the Internet is a Wild West where anything goes is a thing of the past. As Mr. Seleznev has now learned, and others should take note—we are working closely with our law enforcement partners around the world to find, apprehend, and bring to justice those who use the internet to steal and destroy our peace of mind."
Source: twitter.com
