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On 07 Nov 2023, bruce bowser <bruce2bowser@gmail.com> posted some news:2d15a5b2-f7e9-45b5-b0fe-87feff96879en@googlegroups.com:

When Biden and Pelosi die he can speak out.

Two environmentalists told a federal judge Thursday that the public was
the real victim of a global computer hacking campaign that targeted those fighting big oil companies to get the truth out about global warming.

A climate scientist and the director of a fund that creates initiatives to address climate change spoke at the sentencing of an Israeli man who prosecutors said enabled the hacking of thousands of individuals and
entities worldwide.

Aviram Azari, 52, of Kiryat Yam, Israel, was sentenced to six years and
eight months in prison for his role in a global computer-hacking network
that authorities say targeted environmentalists, companies and
individuals.

“I was the target, but the public at large was the intended victim,” said
Peter Frumhoff, director of science and policy and chief scientist at the
Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“It is our job to tell the world the truth about a world on fire” and who
“lit the flame,” said Lee Wasserman, director of the Rockefeller Family
Fund.

In a release, prosecutors said Azari owned an Israeli intelligence firm
from November 2014 to September 2019, earning $4.8 million after clients
hired him to manage “projects” that were really hacking campaigns
targeting climate change activists, individuals and financial firms, among others.

Some hacked documents were leaked to journalists, resulting in articles
related to investigations by attorneys general in New York and
Massachusetts over what Exxon Mobil Corp. knew about climate change and potential misstatements the company made regarding what it knew about the threat, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said the theft of identities and personal data from victims resulted in some of them describing a “psychological assault” that left
them with “anxiety, paranoia, depression, sleeplessness and fear” and the
sense that their personal safety was in jeopardy.

Wasserman said he was “appalled and shaken” by the invasion into his
personal and professional life.

“I found myself whispering in my own home,” he said.

“It was unnerving,” said Frumhoff, who also teaches at Harvard University.

He said the online invasion had a “completely detrimental, chilling effect
on our work.”

Azari was sentenced after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit computer hacking, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He has been detained
since his September 2019 arrest when he traveled to the U.S. from abroad.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Juliana Murray told the judge that Azari’s
victims, including those working for public interest groups and climate
change advocates, were “carefully chosen” to interrupt their work.

When he spoke, Azari apologized to his victims, saying he was accepting
full responsibility for his crimes and promising not to “repeat this ever again.”

Frumhoff said he hoped the investigation continues so that prosecutors can expose who paid Azari “to carry out these attacks.”

After he was sentenced, Azari was given a chance to speak again and said
that he listened as victims spoke at the proceeding.

He predicted “there will come a day” when he would be able to speak more
about his crimes. Until then, he added, he asked for the forgiveness of
his victims.

“You don’t know everything,” he said.

https://fortune.com/2023/11/17/environmentalists-hacked-exxon-research- harvard-rockefeller-israeli-intelligence-operative/

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