Threat Management

Notorious hacker Guccifer sentenced in Romania

A hacker, notorious for accessing the personal email accounts of celebrities and high-profile figures, including President George H.W. Bush's family and friends, has been sentenced to prison.

On Friday, a judge in Romania handed down a four-year sentence to Marcel Lehel Lazar, who also went by the online alias “Guccifer,” according to Reuters. Because Lazar also faces a three-year suspended sentence, he could be incarcerated for up to seven years, the outlet reported.

The hacker, who apparently also worked as a cab driver, was arrested in January and pleaded guilty to hacking crimes last month. In addition serving his time, Lazar was reportedly ordered to pay 11,000 lei, or $3,400, in legal fees.

Back in January, Guccifer's hacking spree on a number of high-profile people, including comedian Steve Martin, editor Tina Brown and author Candace Bushnell, was reported by The Smoking Gun.

In that instance, he claimed to have accessed email accounts by scouring his targets' Wikipedia pages in order to guess the answers to password hints protecting their accounts. After breaking into their email, Guccifer downloaded the address books of victims, giving him the means to continue his exploits on new targets.

In July 2013, reports also surfaced that Guccifer had hacked Roy Apseloff, the former deputy CIO of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Gawker published the ill-gotten email exchanges, which included scantily-clad photos from Apseloff's female acquaintances and other personal photos Guccifer submitted to the media outlet.

The emails Guccifer obtained from Bush's family and friends entailed correspondence over a three-year period, from 2009 to 2012, most notably, leaked self-portaits of Bush showering and bathing.

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