eBay hacker receives 3-year suspended sentence

The Romanian hacker who repeatedly hacked eBay servers, accessed parts of its sites that were off-limits to users and even accessed a number of eBay accounts has been handed down a three-year suspended sentence by a Romanian court.

The 23-year old Vlad Duiculescu – who went by the handle “Vladuz” – has created havoc during his repeated break-ins. He occasionally impersonated eBay employees on the company’s discussion forums, and posted names and emails of eBay customers.

This went on for three years, and he repeatedly bragged about his exploits online and taunted eBays IT security staff. For a time, it has been thought that he had managed to install a backdoor into the company’s servers, but the speculation has never been confirmed.

Duiculescu was arrested in 2008 following a joint investigation by the Romanian police and the U.S. Secret Service. According to EcommerceBytes, his antics have caused eBay around $2 million in losses.