A Staten Island computer hacker got three years in federal prison Thursday for his role in a series of attacks on DirecTV, Farmers Insurance and the Los Angeles Department of Public Works, federal prosecutors said.
Mario Patrick Chuisano was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles and was ordered to pay $2,662,438.80 in restitution to the three victims.
Chuisano, 32, pleaded guilty in June 2014 to conspiracy to intentionally cause damage to a protected computer as well as possession of an unregistered sawed-off shotgun, authorities said.
FBI agents also found an unregistered handgun and brass knuckles at his residence along with equipment capable of making counterfeit credit and debit cards, according to court documents.
During 2012 and 2013, Chuisano’s hacking group, SwaggSec — or “Swagg Security” — boasted about its attack by releasing stolen information on its social media account, the feds said.
A self-taught hacker who used the online monikers “fame” and “infam0us,” Chuisano admitted he installed a Remote Access Trojan (R.A.T.) on the computer of an insurance agent and used it to steal reports, e-mails and passwords from Farmers Insurance.
“The theft and release of passwords is particularly disturbing because many people use the same passwords for activities of daily Internet life, such as banking and device access,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.
In the attack on the Los Angeles Department of Public Works, the hacking group and Chuisano stole identification and health information related to more than 3,000 people, prosecutors said.
SwaggSec has been dubbed a copycat of the LulzSec hacking group that carried out a series of high-profile computer attacks in 2011.
