A former security researcher turned criminal hacker has been sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for hacking into financial institutions and stealing credit card account numbers.
Max Ray Butler, who used the hacker pseudonym Iceman, was sentenced Friday morning in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh on charges of wire fraud and identity theft. In addition to his 13-year sentence, Butler will face five years of supervised release and must pay US$27.5 million in restitution to his victims, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Luke Dembosky, who prosecuted the case for the federal government.
Dembosky believes the 13 year sentence is the longest-ever handed down for hacking charges. Butler, also known as Max Vision, pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges in June last year.
He gained notoriety for hacking into carder forum Web sites, where stolen credit card numbers are bought and sold, and forcing members to conduct their business through his own site — CardersMarket.com. Criminals used the stolen credit card numbers to create fake debit and credit cards that were then used to steal money or merchandise.
This isn’t Butler’s first time facing a federal hacking sentence.
After a promising start as a security consultant who did volunteer work for the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Butler was arrested for writing malicious software that installed a back-door program on computers – including some on federal government networks – that were susceptible to a security hole.
Butler served an 18-month prison term for the crime and fell on hard times after his 2002 release, he said in a sentencing memorandum filed Thursday. “I was homeless, staying on a friends couch. I couldn’t get work,” he wrote. In desperation, he turned again to cybercrime. By the time of his arrest in September 2007, he had built the largest marketplace for stolen credit and debit card information in the world.
“It is a shame that someone with so much ability chose to use it in a manner that hurt many people,” Dembosky said in an e-mail message. “This sentence sends a message that cyber crime is taken very seriously.”
Butler’s public defender, Michael Novara, could not immediately be reached for comment.
The court is recommending that Butler be incarcerated at the minimum-security Federal Prison Camp in Sheridan, Oregon.
Good, I hope other hackers realise the potential consequences of what they’re doing and stop. 13 years in prison can’t be too much fun! He looks kinda scary too..
I have different views on hackers compared to most people, but fraud is a crime and a person must be punished.
What are your views then mmm?
I’m worried about expressing them on the Internet ;)
Dare you. Just kidding, it could be a good discussion though!
Well, I come from a hacking background, that’s how I learnt a great deal of my skills. Spending hours on end penetrating systems for find exploits – My aim was never to steal credit cards or anything like that, but I did pull off a few interesting hacks, and a few times cops did arrive at the door which ended is my parents screaming at me and grounding me for eternity. Anyway, I know how the hacker culture works and I’ve got a lot of friends who are still involved, it’s very different to how the media/press make it out to be, a lot of the time, hackers are given such a negative name, “hackers are people too”..
people tend to think hackers are bad, but not all hackers are bad. some hackers do it just to prove that they can crack into systems and stuff and not cause any harm, whereas other hackers hack systems to destroy, steal data. or cause havok.
i for one actually admire hackers. they are some of the brightest and most cleverest people out there.
but yes, hacking is a crime no matter what way you see it. it’s like breaking into someone’s house.
@Geoffrey – So awesome to hear from someone else who can find some respect for hackers, you’re right though, there are two very different types, and I’m not saying either of the type is correct in what they do, but one’s far worse than the other. It’s true about hackers, their skills, intelligence and patience is admirable!
i never even saw your previous post. i used to work at a university and yeah, i also spent some time penetrating systems and so forth but also not to do any harm.
i actually left messages on people’s desktops or servers saying what the exploit was and what they needed to do to fix it. lol. fun times.
but one kind of “hacker” i don’t repect in a way are the “script kiddies”. the hackers who write their own code and all that are the ones that are mindblowing.
Gawd, script kiddies, netbus fans, yuck, keep those noobs away from me!
I really did do some wicked hacks, I wish I could share them, but I don’t think it would be a wise move as the companies are still around and they’re not small ones!
just now the FBI comes a knocking on the door ^.^
Ya bro, let’s not have that happen ;)
Not going to lie… Slightly concerning
Which part?
I’ve heard the “not all hackers are bad” sentiment but whether there is malicious intent or not, it’s still an invasion of privacy. I’m sure a lot of hackers just do it for the fun or satisfaction of it but that doesn’t mean its right – and you guys seem to agree on that which is great. Essentially hackers are going to hack no matter what but why not rather use those skills for a useful cause (as ironic as that sounds!). Don’t governments throughout the world employ hackers to help them crack down on various crime syndicates and/or terrorism networks?