Hacker pleaded guilty to all charges brought by US officials

Sep 1, 2016 23:50 GMT  ·  By

Marcel Lehel Lazar, 44, of Arad, Romania, a former cab driver turned hacker who used the name Guccifer, was sentenced to 52 months (4 years 4 months) in prison by a US court.

Lazar pleaded guilty to all charges after he spent almost two years fighting extradition charges in Romania.

US authorities officially indicted Guccifer in June 2014, but only in March 2016 did they manage to extradite him to the US.

Lazar hacked over 100 US citizens

Lazar pleaded guilty to all nine indictments, which included three counts of wire fraud, three counts of gaining unauthorized access to protected computers, and one count each of aggravated identity theft, cyberstalking, and obstruction of justice.

Authorities said Lazar hacked into the email and social media accounts of over 100 US citizens.

His most famous victims include former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, the daughter of former President George H.W. Bush, and US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

For all incidents, the hacker released documents and email correspondence online. Lazar didn't leak documents from Hillary Clinton's private email server but did so with other private Clinton messages that led to the discovery of her hidden email server.

While waiting for sentencing in the US, Lazar claimed responsibility for hacking the Clinton email server, but the indictment didn't include this hack.

Lazar still has to serve two more years in prison in Romania

In 2012, Lazar received a three-year suspended sentence for hacking various Romanian celebrities. In 2014, after hacking several Romanian politicians, the hacker was re-arrested and sentenced to three years in prison, also receiving an extra year left over from the 2012 suspended sentence.

After US authorities release Lazar from jail, he'll have to return to Romania to finish the rest of his 3+1 years prison sentence.

Lazar's infamous hacking streak inspired another hacker to use his name, as Guccifer 2.0, and dump data stolen from the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.