Washington: A Romanian hacker nicknamed "Guccifer" who helped expose the existence of private email server Hillary Clinton used when she was US secretary of state has been sentenced to more than four years in prison.
Marcel Lazar, 44, who used the alias online, had pleaded guilty in May to charges including unauthorised access to a protected computer and aggravated identity theft after being extradited from Romania.
![Marcel Lazar, who used the alias Guccifer online, was jailed for hacking into Hillary Clinton's private email server.](/web/20161106202139im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/7/9/h/y/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gr762e.png/1472827615266.jpg)
Lazar is believed to have hacked into email accounts of about 100 victims between 2012 and 2014.
They included celebrities, business executives and political figures such as Sidney Blumenthal, an adviser with whom Clinton corresponded using her personal email account; confidantes of former president George W. Bush; and former secretary of state Colin Powell.
US District Judge James CCacheris of Alexandria imposed a 52-month sentence, saying a tough penalty was needed to deter future hacking.
"This epidemic must stop," Cacheris said.
Hacking passwords and employing social-engineering tactics including fraud, identity theft and harassment, Lazar stored megabytes of victims' stolen private documents and turned them over to media outlets. He also leaked pictures of Bush's paintings.
"The extent of the harm caused by defendant's conduct is incalculable," federal prosecutors wrote in seeking a maximum penalty of 4 1/2 years under US sentencing guidelines.
![Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton checks her mobile phone after her address to the Security Council at the UN ...](/web/20161106202139im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/7/9/j/9/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gr762e.png/1472827615266.jpg)
A maximum punishment "would also help address any false perception that unauthorised access of a computer is ever justified or rationalised as the cost of living in a wired society - or even worse, a crime to be celebrated," Assistant US Attorney Maya Song wrote.
Prosecutors said a stern sentence could deter other violators. They cited the case of Guccifer 2.0, an individual or group of hackers whom US officials say is tied to Russian intelligence services and who claimed credit for hacking the Democratic National Committee earlier this year.
![FBI Director James Comey after explaining his agency's recommendation to not prosecute Democratic presidential candidate ...](/web/20161106202139im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/7/9/k/m/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gr762e.png/1472827615266.jpg)
The publication of DNC emails online by WikiLeaks led to the resignation of its chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, in July. Guccifer 2.0 was branded "in homage to" Lazar, Song wrote.
Contrary to Lazar's own claims, authorities say that he never obtained access to Clinton's email account.
In court documents, Lazar's public defence counsel asked for a sentence of three years, calling his hacking expeditions "an addiction of sorts".
Despite his "admittedly brash online personality," public defender Shannon Quill wrote, Lazar is actually a devoted father and husband who was frustrated by his inability to find work in the computer sector.
"We need him because life is very hard in Romania," his wife, Gabriela Violeta Lazar, wrote in a letter to the court.
He was also motivated, Quill wrote, "to expose what he saw as hypocrisy, especially in those connected to the defence and intelligence sectors".
A high school graduate, Lazar had no formal training or computer expertise. He told the New York Times that he obtained access to high-profile people's email and social-media accounts by reading their Wikipedia pages and guessing passwords based on their personal information.
Once he had access to one person's account, he sometimes impersonated him or her to gain more passwords and personal information.
Although he told the FBI he was interested in politics and "a better world for our children," he targeted a seemingly random mix of both politicians and celebrities. Along with Bush and Powell, he exposed the personal information of magazine editor Tina Brown, author Candace Bushnell and actor Jeffrey Tambor.
In his 2014 interview, Lazar told FBI agents he trawled more or less randomly through the online accounts of "important people", looking for weak spots. He succeeded only about 8 to 10 per cent of the time, he estimated.
Prosecutors argued that although Lazar confessed, he showed no remorse and probably will return to hacking. He was on probation for a hacking offence in Romania when he began targeting American celebrities in 2012.
If he could go back in time and talk to his 2012 self, prosecutors say he told one FBI agent, "I'd say, 'All right, you have done a good job'. "
The judge said the Romanian Ministry of Justice requested that Lazar be immediately released to his home country to serve a sentence there, but said he would be conditionally released in 2018 and returned to the USÂ to serve his prison term there.
Reuters, Washington Post
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