In May, 2018, Billy Ribeiro Anderson, known online as ““Alfabeto Virtual,” was charged with hacking and defacing two of the many sites he had attacked. In October, 2018, the Southern District of New York announced that he had pleaded guilty to two felony counts of computer fraud for his attacks on the New York City Comptroller’s site and the counterterrorism site of West Point.
Now he’s found out his sentence.
Kieren McCarthy reports that Anderson has been sentenced to three months in jails plus restitution. The jail time was reportedly to “send a message:”
Anderson was ordered to pay a total of $12,804 to cover the costs of getting the two government websites patched and back online. But – noting that he had expressed remorse for his actions – Manhattan federal district judge Laura Swain gave him far less than the 12 to 18 months the government prosecutor had recommended [PDF].
The judge refused a plea [PDF] for a non-custodial sentence from his lawyer however saying that “these kinds of intrusions undermine confidence in government,” and noting that Anderson only stopped his activities after he knew prosecutors were on his tail.
Read more about the other elements of his sentence on The Register.