LulzSec Hackers Get Prison in England

Hacked Sony, others in 2011

Four members of the noisy and prolific LulzSec group, an offshoot of Anonymous, were sentenced today in London to between two and two-and-a-half years in prison for their roles in a series of high-profile hacks against Sony and other targets in 2011.

Ryan Cleary, also known as "Viral" online, Jake "Topiary" Davis, and Ryan "Kayla" Ackroyd, all received sentences in prison, while Mustafa al-Bassam, aka T-Flow, was given a 20-month suspended sentence due to the fact that he was only 16 when he committed the crimes. Al-Bassam, now 18, was also sentenced to 300 hours of community service, according to the BBC.

The group, all now in their early twenties except Al-Bassam, went on a hacking spree, dubbed "50 Days of Lulz" in the spring of 2011, during which they stole passwords, credit card data and email addresses and also conducted denial-of-service attacks against websites. Targets included Sony Pictures — from whom they stole data on millions of customer accounts — Electronic Arts, Rupert Murdoch's News International corporation, as well as the Serious Organized Crime Agency, the UK's chief investigating division for cybercrimes, and the CIA web site.