Lizard Squad member, Zachary Buchta, was sentenced to three months in prison last week for his role in a “hacker-for-hire” service.
Buchta who is 20 pleaded guilty in December 2017 for one count of conspiracy to commit damage to protected computers, a charge, which can carry a sentence of up to ten years in prison. His reduced term was in part because of his co-operation with authorities, which ended in the arrest of several of his former associates. As part of his plea deal, he was also ordered to pay $350,000 in restitution to two online gambling companies that were targets of his scheme.
U.S. District Judge Manish Shah said that online attacks like those run by the Lizard Squad are “not a fantasy that doesn’t have real-world consequences”. Shah said, “They are crimes against real things and people”. He added, “Like other crimes, this is just lashing out and hurting people.”
Before the sentencing, Buchta read aloud a brief statement to the court, in which he apologized to his victims and promised to become a “better man”, including addressing long-term anxiety and depression and aiming to earn a high-school degree and hold down a job.
“I feel like I’m a productive member of society,” said Buchta, reading from prepared remarks. “I have a lot to offer the world.”
When his sentence was read aloud several minutes later, Buchta burst into tears at the inclusion of prison time. His lawyer, Jay Leidermann, apparently rubbed his back in order to console him.
Buchta was only 17 when the FBI first began to investigate him as a founding member of the prolific hacker groups Lizard Squad and PoodleCorp. The groups charged a $20 fee to target anyone using online harassment. No charges were filed back in 2014 when Buchta was first questioned by the FBI; in fact, he taunted FBI officials after the questioning, going as far as to adopt the Twitter handle @fbiarelosers.
In January 2015, the group made headlines by hijacking Taylor Swift’s social media accounts, and sending tweets from her account instructing her followers to follow two Lizard Squad related Twitter accounts. They then threatened Swift with the release of nude photos in exchange for Bitcoins.
In October 2016, Buchta was arrested and charged with the launch of a range of attacks over the last two years, including shutting down the web networks of several gaming companies and intimidating victims with harassing phone calls, in what the court termed phone-bombing schemes, making threats of physical attacks in exchange for ransom money.