The fate of a master hacker

Alberto Gonzalez--the scourge of Heartland Payments Systems, TJX and many other firms--was in many ways the face of corporate data insecurity last year, when the anxiety about customer data seemed to reach a boiling point. It's still hard to believe that one man can wreak so much havoc. His stranger-than-fiction story couldn't be made up; he was a secret service informant for Pete's sake. 

So what makes him tick?

He has pled guilty to at least 20 counts of identity thefts, computer fraud, and wire fraud, and will likely serve many, many years in jail. Of course he would like to reduce his term, and to that end his legal team has informed a judge that Gonzalez suffers from Asperger syndrome, a form of autism. That would explain his unhealthy obsession with Internet-based credit card fraud. 

His attorneys hired a psychiatrist who examined him and found behavior that could be seen as consistent with the disorder. The judge delayed sentencing for three-months to give prosecutors a chance to examine the issue. This is somewhat novel, not quite insanity and not quite the Twinkie defense either. My sense is that he's going away from a while. As of now, prosecutors have agreed to seek a sentence not to exceed 25 years, and Gonzalez had agreed seek no less than 17 years in prison. 

You have to wonder if regulators and investigators would be interested in using him again as part of their team. He seems to have been ahead of the curve a bit and may be of some benefit. Trusting him will be the hard part. He's already detailed how some schemes were carried out. And the fact remains he was once on the feds' payroll. - Jim