Hacker Albert Gonzalez received another 20 year-sentence March 26 to run concurrently with the one he received sentence he received March 25 in two other cases.
Today’s sentencing brought the odyssey of the 28-year-old cyber-criminal to a close, in a case covering the massive breach of Heartland Payment Systems that compromised millions of credit and debit card numbers. Gonzalez pled guilty to charges from that and other breaches in 2009 in a plea agreement.
Besides Heartland, Gonzalez and his crew were linked to hacks against BJ’s Wholesale Club, TJX, OfficeMax and other retailers.
Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 25 years for Gonzalez, stating it would serve as a deterrent for other cyber-criminals. Gonzalez’s attorney argued for leniency on the grounds his client exhibited symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome and had only a tenuous connection to the Heartland breach, according to reports.
The sentence meted out to Gonzalez is the longest given for cyber-crime in U.S. history, authorities have said.