Wi-Fi Hacker Sentenced To Nine Years

A 21-year-old Michigan man was sentenced Wednesday to nine years in prison for breaking into the network of home improvement retailer Lowe's, the longest jail term ever handed out in the U.S. for hacking.

Brian Salcedo pleaded guilty in August to various charges, including conspiracy and fraud, stemming from a 2003 incident in which he and two others were caught hacking into an unsecured Wi-Fi access point from the parking lot of a Lowe's in suburban Detroit. They then accessed Lowe's national computer system -- which is based in North Wilkesboro, N.C. -- and installed a program to hijack credit card information.

The FBI arrested Salcedo, Adam Botbyl, 21, and Paul Timmins, 23, after staking out the parking lot and noticing a car with suspicious-looking antennas.

According to the Associated Press, the government claimed Salcedo's 9-year term is the harshest ever handed down in a computer crime in the United States. The previous record is that of well-known hacker Kevin Mitnick, who was sentenced in 1999 to 5 years, 8 months behind bars for a variety of computer- and cell phone-related crimes.

In August, after Salcedo pled to lesser charges, prosecutors recommended that he serve 12 years and 7 months.

"I think the massive amount of potential loss that these defendants could have imposed was astounding, so that's what caused us to seek a substantial sentence against Mr. Salcedo," the Associated Press quoted federal prosecutor Matthew Martens saying.

Botbyl and Timmins both await sentencing.