Kane Gamble was sentenced Friday to two years in juvenile detention for a series of crimes the court deemed cyberterrorism against the U.S.
Gamble pleaded guilty in October to eight charges of performing a function with intent to secure unauthorized access to computers and two charges of unauthorized modification of computer material, Metro News reported.
When he was 15 and 16, Gamble impersonated several high level U.S. government officials during customer service calls to Comcast and Verizon to gain email and phone account information, then hacked into their personal accounts and gained unauthorized and private information, some of which he released publicly.
Among the targeted officials were then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, then-Deputy National Security Advisor Avril Haines, then-Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, and then-FBI Special Agent Amy Hess, The Telegraph noted.
Gamble used a TV in Johnson’s home to post the message “I own you” and left a taunting voicemail for Johnson’s wife, The Telegraph reported. He also released the contact information of 20,000 FBI agents and staff to Wikileaks.
The teen’s attorneys argued for leniency, saying that he wanted to pursue college, and argued that Gamble was “naïve” in using the intrusions to try to change U.S. policy and didn’t think about how his actions would affect the officials and their families, partly because he was on the autism spectrum, the BBC reported.
The judge, Justice Haddon-Cave, however, said Gamble “reveled” in the attacks and that “this was an extremely nasty campaign of politically motivated cyberterrorism,” the Telegraph reported. “The victims would have felt seriously violated.”
Gamble had bragged about his actions before he was caught, saying, “This is so serious I’m f***ing shaking. This has to be the biggest hack ever,” The Telegraph reported.
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