back to article Hacker 'Guccifer' extradited to US

Convicted hacker Marcel Lahel, better known by his handle "Guccifer" under which he hacked celebrity and government accounts, is being extradited to the US to face computer intrusion and identity theft charges. Lahel, 42, is best known for stealing and publishing paintings by former US President George W Bush. He also hacked …

  1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    So, pretty good odds for a successful insanity plea?

    1. Roq D. Kasba

      The monicker alone suggests a troubled mind - goochifer? Goosifer? It just doesn't work - that alone would have driven me bonkers!

      1. Bloakey1

        "The monicker alone suggests a troubled mind - goochifer? Goosifer? It just doesn't work - that alone would have driven me bonkers!"

        A play on the word Lucifer or the devil if you wish. There may be cultural, national or ethnic influences at play with his changing of the word.

        1. Roq D. Kasba

          A play on the word Lucifer or the devil if you wish.

          Clearly!

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        American law enforcement includes the eugenics method of randomly killing the insane.

        Not the insane, they have special places they can go to. Pentagon, White House, Congress - lots of options.

    3. Captain DaFt

      "So, pretty good odds for a successful insanity plea?"

      They can call it the Kardashian Defense.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Holmes

    Illuminati confirmed

  3. Darren Bell
    Black Helicopters

    Sounds like Gupters law of creative anomalies. Sound nicely made up. Tin foil hat time lol.

    He has something they want back.

  4. David Roberts

    Prison time?

    Suspended sentence in 2011.

    Convicted in 2014.

    Served seven years in jail - when?

    The time line is wrong or something is missing.

    1. Richard Jones 1
      Happy

      Re: Prison time?

      Perhaps were are dealing with an oxymoron called 'intelligence' or a parallel existence? He sounds a bit well out of this one with all of his mindless ramblings.

      The worry is that some will believe his crap spouting numb skull stupidity.

      1. Mark 85

        Re: Prison time?

        Are you sure they don't already? Some of the crap floating around this election season here in States makes me wonder.

    2. Ian Michael Gumby
      Black Helicopters

      @David Roberts ... RIF Re: Prison time?

      David,

      Reading is Fundamental. ;-)

      He got caught in 2011 for hacking... suspended sentence.

      He got caught in 2014 for hacking... 4 years prison time. (Not sure where you come up w 7 years served.)

      Now wanted in the US for his hacking and ID theft here.

      Now... funny thing... he can make a nice plea deal with the FBI in exchange for testimony over Hillary's server.

      No?

      1. Red Bren

        Re: @David Roberts ... RIF Prison time?

        (Not sure where you come up w 7 years served.)

        The bit in paragraph 6 about "The Romanian citizen and unemployed taxi driver and paint salesman served seven years in the Arad maximum security prison" might have been it...

        Perhaps he'd previously been framed for something serious (7 years max security for a first cybercrime seems harsh) and while trying to clear his name and expose his tormentors, found a trail of corruption leading all the way to the White House?

        Where's my tinfoil hat?

    3. JLV
      Pint

      Re: Prison time?

      >Lahel, 42, is best known

      >He began hacking at the age of 35 and in 2011

      >The Romanian citizen and unemployed taxi driver and paint salesman served seven years in the Arad maximum security prison

      Well, it didn't state that he served the 7 years for hacking, but otherwise, the timeline bits of this article are about as clear as Perl code written while on a bender.

  5. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    Dubya paints ?

    He should have stuck with that.

    1. John Lilburne

      Re: Dubya paints ?

      Not so surprising so did Bonzo the chimp too

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedtime_for_Bonzo

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And here I was, thinking that Romania follows human rights, like not extraditing people to countries that have a long and well known history of human rights abuse if not outright contempt.

    and all that on the base of Computer Fraud and Abuse Act? it's a farce

    1. xperroni
      Alien

      Romania, like everywhere else, follows the...

      ...Illuminati Greys Cthulhu money.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You mean there are any countries without a well known history of human rights abuse? I think if you crack open the history books you'll find they all have.

      1. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

        Human rights abuses

        "I think if you crack open the history books you'll find they all have." by AC

        How about Australia? and obviously I'm talking about the proper owners , not the white fellas from the other side of the planet who turned up recently and committed many human rights abuses.

      2. Crazy Operations Guy

        " I think if you crack open the history books you'll find they all have."

        Iceland, Greenland, the Australian aboriginals, most of the island nations in the Pacific, some of the remote tribal nations in South America, and a couple other scattered little places around the world.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      And here I was, thinking that Romania follows human rights, like not extraditing people to countries that have a long and well known history of human rights abuse if not outright contempt.

      Despite what you may think, this was a perfectly normal, correctly executed extradition process. Properly requested, with evidence which was credible because the guy burned his fingers already in similar events in his own country, so it wasn't even trumped up (pardon the pun). Heck, it's so normal in context with how the US normally acts it actually stands out.

      I'm absolutely no fan of the USA in the way they seem to think that US law applies everywhere, but in this case law enforcement happens to have worked the way it should.

      Now, given that this man is from Transylvania I would suspect that he prefers to work at night :).

    4. Ian Michael Gumby
      Boffin

      Huh? Seriously WTF...

      If you were going to be doing jail time... where would you want to go?

      Romania or some Eastern Europe / Slavic country, or a medium security or club fed prison in the US?

      And you have to realize that he has a huge bargaining chip in his back pocket.

      If it wasn't for him, we would never had known about Hillary's private server... or found proof of her and Billy Boy's corruption.

      He could cop a plea and testify against Hillary. Do you not think that he didn't go after Clinton's server once he found out it existed?

      He had better act fast. Google Vince Foster if you don't understand.

  7. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    Re: monicker

    Maybe he is just really into handbags and stuff?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Prosecutors have said Lahel has a "compulsive need to be famous".

    Sounds like he should apply to Big Brother or TOWIE

    1. Alistair
      Windows

      Re: Prosecutors have said Lahel has a "compulsive need to be famous".

      Perhaps he's applying to Trump's campaign bus.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Open source intelligence and social engineering tactics?

    "Marcel Lahel .. used open source intelligence and social engineering tactics to gain access to email accounts."

    What's 'open source' intelligence :)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Open source intelligence and social engineering tactics?

      What's 'open source' intelligence

      Facebook, Twitter and any other form of asocial media that not only encourage people to post comments about their OWN personal lives but also that of friends, plus whatever can be mined by using Google. "Open source intelligence" is an actual term, not a made up idea.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Linux

        Re: Open source intelligence and social engineering tactics?

        On my planet Open Source means computer Source Code that is distributed without imposing restrictions on what the downstream users could do with it. Regardless as to how certain people would like to corrupt the term.

  10. pitagora

    To be fair, I'd say he is about to get a major upgrade in prison conditions. You really don't want to go to prison in Eastern Europe. I can image he hopes to serve the rest of his sentence in the US instead of Romania.

    1. h4rm0ny

      Regardless of conditions, he is being taken to a place where his family and friends can no longer visit him. He is being separated from people he shares his language and culture with. Those by themselves are a devastating punishment. Especially when enduring life in prison which is a major hardship.

      And US prisons are not exactly comfortable B&Bs.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    35 years old!

    Wow...

    Ive been worrying for years that im getting too old for IT (im 32)...

    This guy has given me renewed hope if he *started* at 35.

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