Haktech: 23-Year-Old Pleads Guilty to Hacking Sony

Cody Kretsinger today pleaded guilty to the 2011 hack of Sony Pictures, acknowledging that he passed along information to other members of the LulzSec spinoff of Anonymous.

arrested and charged Thursday in connection with the breach of computers at Sony Pictures Entertainment early this summer in which more than 37,000 users had their information stolen.

Cody Kretsinger, 23, of Tempe, Arizona, was arrested and expected to make a court appearance later Thursday in a Phoenix courtroom.

An indictment unsealed in Los Angeles charged Kretsinger with one count each of conspiracy and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer. If convicted of both counts, he faces up to 15 years in prison.

A suspected member of LulzSec, Kretsinger and co-conspirators obtained confidential information from Sony Pictures’ computer systems using an “SQL injection” attack against its website.   And if convicted, Kretsinger will face 15 years in prison.

Earlier this summer the FBI arrested 14 members of Anonymous, which is a clear sign that – along with this arrest – law enforcement is stepping up its efforts to bring down the “hacktivist” community.