abene

The reality is, this guy would probably do 1-2 years, like Abene and Mitnick (even Mitnick did minimal time after his trial concluded).

How did Mark Abene take things in a more sinister direction than Kevin Mitnick?

Hell Mark Abene even had his debut as an actor in some movie I can't remember.

I think even Mark Abene made bail, and he reprogrammed telco switches.

I had a similar feeling of the sentence being a bit much in the case of Mark Abene aka Phiber Optik [1] back in my NYC Echo Days (where is Stacy Horn nowadays?).

Phiber Optik (Mark Abene)was sent to prison for the AT&T hack to be made an "example" of the "Hacker threat".

Look at Kevin Mitnick (the exception to the rule mentioned above), Adrian Lamo, Mark Abene, Kevin Poulsen, etc, etc...

Yes, and they set an interesting counter-example: Kevin Poulsen, Mark Abene, Elias Ladopoulos, and others took things in a sinister direction.

I also remember the weight of the situation hit me at the least expected during Phiberfest at Irving Plaza, NYC in 1995, celebrating Phiber Optik's (Mark Abene) release from prison.

Phiber Optik (Mark Abene)was sent to prison for the AT&T hack to be made an "example" of the "Hacker threat".

Look at Kevin Mitnick (the exception to the rule mentioned above), Adrian Lamo, Mark Abene, Kevin Poulsen, etc, etc...

Yes, and they set an interesting counter-example: Kevin Poulsen, Mark Abene, Elias Ladopoulos, and others took things in a sinister direction.

I also remember the weight of the situation hit me at the least expected during Phiberfest at Irving Plaza, NYC in 1995, celebrating Phiber Optik's (Mark Abene) release from prison.