Community Corner

LulzSec Hacker Sentenced to Prison for Sony Pictures Computer Break-In

Raynaldo Rivera was part of a team that hacked into the Culver-City based company's computer system in 2011.

A 21-year-old Arizona man who belongs to a computer hacking group was sentenced today in Los Angeles to a year behind bars for his part in a cyber attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment's system.   

Raynaldo Rivera, who was known by the online moniker “neuron,” was also ordered by U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt by serve 13 months of home detention, perform 1,000 hours of community service and pay $605,663 in restitution.   

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Culver City-based Sony's computer system was hacked in 2011 for about a week by the group known as LulzSec, or Lulz Security, whose members anonymously claimed responsibility on the group's website, court papers show. 

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the group's goal was to see the “raw, uninterrupted, chaotic thrill of entertainment and anarchy” and circulate stolen personal information “so that equally evil people can entertain us with what they do with it.”   

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Rivera pleaded guilty in October to conspiring to cause damage to a protected computer for his role in the attack, according to federal prosecutors.   

Another member of the hacking group, Cody Andrew Kretsinger, 25, of Phoenix, was sentenced in April to a year in federal prison, along with similar home-detention, community service requirements and restitution as Rivera.

Kretsinger pleaded guilty last year to one federal count each of conspiracy and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Vandevelde.   

LulzSec is known for its affiliation with the international hacking collective known as Anonymous, which conducts cyber attacks and disseminates information stolen from individuals and companies perceived to be hostile to its interests, officials said.

 


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