50 CELEBRITY SECRETS EXPOSED scores year behind bars

The New York man behind a 2014 data dump site exposed.su has been sentenced to a year in prison, plus 12 months for time already served, for doxing high-profile figures including First Lady Michelle Obama, Presidential candidate Donald Trump, and artist Jay Z, and placing dozens of highly-dangerous swatting calls.

Mir Islam, 22, exposed data on some 50 public figures including former FBI director Robert Mueller, former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan, and celebrities Ashton Kutcher, Beyonce, and Tom Cruise.

Their personal information was uploaded to exposed.su triggering a MediaOutrageStorm^TM.

KrebsonSecurity reported at the time that the hackers were obtaining cheap credit reports using information provided by the sssndob.ru service.

Swatting is the practice of calling police to report bogus threats at a victim's location, an action that often results in the appearance of heavily armed SWAT officers.

Islam pleaded guilty on 6 July last year to three charges including one count of conspiracy to commit a range of federal offenses, including identity theft; access device fraud; social security number misuse; computer fraud; wire fraud; assaulting federal officials; and interstate transmission of threats. The other charges included one count of threatening and conveying false information concerning the use of explosives and one count of cyber-stalking.

“The crimes committed by this defendant violated the privacy of dozens of people, fostered identity theft, and endangered the safety of many others,” US Attorney Channey Phillips says.

“Mir Islam put people at risk on the internet and in their own homes, placed responding police officers at risk, created a dangerous situation on a college campus, caused substantial emotional distress to numerous victims, and diverted law enforcement from work they could be doing to protect the public.

"Today’s sentence reflects the seriousness of his crimes and hopefully will deter others from similar actions.” KrebsonSecurity reports Islam's defence argued he suffered from multiple psychological disorders and that the crimes were perpetrated from a sense of “anarchic libertarianism” intended to expose government overreach on consumer privacy and use of force.

Islam was previously arrested with 24 others under the FBIs Carder Profit sting, but was sentenced to a mere day in jail.

The hacker admits to running Exposed.su while cooperating with police during the time of the Carder Profit arrests, Krebs on Security reports.

Islam was re-arrested in September 2013 for violating the terms of his parole, and for the swatting and doxing attacks to which he pled guilty. ®