Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Federal investigators announced a total of 44 charge against a suspected member of the hacktivist group Anonymous.
Fidel Salinas, 27, of Donna, Texas, could be sentenced up to 444 years in prison for conspiring with the collective to hack computer systems of a county government, a school district and a newspaper in Texas, RT.com reports.
For awhile, it looked like Salinas would only face a single charge, but subsequent charges continue to be filed.
Salinas is also accused of cyber-stalking a female victim at least 18 times in December 2011.
“According to the allegations, between Dec. 23-29, 2011, Salinas had the intent to harass and intimidate a female victim. Allegedly, he repeatedly e-mailed her, attempted to gain unauthorized access to her website, made submissions through a contact form on that site and tried to open user accounts without her consent,” the FBI said in Tuesday’s statement.
“The indictment lists his alleged attempts to stalk her and hack into her website. According to the indictment, he repeatedly did so late at night and early in the morning, with his stalking attempts or messages sometimes occurring less than one minute apart from each other. He allegedly did so as part of a conspiracy or agreement with at least one other person, according to the charges.”
This is ridiculous! How can someone could be sentenced 444 years for hacking? This is injustice and over zealous prosecutors. I guess they have nothing to do but prosecute geeks.