As part of his criminal hacking life, Mijangos told police that he used open-source cryptor software to make malicious programs undetectable by antivirus programs. He worked with other criminals he met in an international online IRC (Internet Relay Chat) forum for identity thieves called CC Power.

He spread his malware -- often remote access tools such as Poison Ivy or SpyNet - by disguising it as a song on peer-to-peer networks or e-mailing or instant messaging it to victims disguised as a video.

Mijangos pleaded guilty to hacking and wiretapping in March. He was sentenced Thursday in Los Angeles at the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

He's the latest in a string of hackers to be accused of "sextortion" -- breaking into computers or e-mail accounts and then threatening to post compromising photographs unless his victims provide him with more pictures.

In January, George Bronk of Sacramento, California, that he broke into more than 3,200 e-mail accounts looking for sexy photos, which he then threatened to post to the Internet. He was sentenced to four years in prison. In February, James Dale Brown of Fremont, California, by threatening to post explicit pictures of her online.