UK Facebook Hacker Sentenced To Eight Months
A British student who hacked into one of the world’s largest social networking websites was sentenced to eight months in prison Friday in what prosecutors called the most serious case of its kind that they had ever witnessed.
According to Reuters and Telegraph reports, 26-year-old Glenn Mangham, a software developmental from Cornlands Road, York, admitted to infiltrating Facebook from the bedroom at his parents’ house between April and May of last year.
Mangham said that he previously had helped Yahoo improve their online security and simply wanted to do the same thing for Facebook, but prosecutors did not believe those claims.
“He said he wanted a mini project and chose Facebook because of its high-profile Internet presence,” prosecutor Sandip Patel told London’s Southwark Crown Court on Friday, according to Reuters. “The prosecution does not accept that the defendant’s actions were anything other than malicious.”
“He acted with determination, undoubted ingenuity and it was sophisticated, it was calculating,” Patel added prior to sentencing, according to the Associated Press (AP), later adding, “This represents the most extensive and grave incident of social media hacking to be brought before the British courts.”
The Telegraph reported that Facebook spent a total of $200,000 dealing with the cyberattack, including investigations by both the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and UK law enforcement personnel.
Reuters notes that the social network first became aware of Mangham’s security breach in April and contacted the FBI, who eventually traced the attack to England. Mangham’s house was raided on June 2, 2010.
According to the AP, it was not clear what information had been stolen by Mangham, though police did report that no personal user data had been compromised by his cyberattack. No details regarding exactly how he was able to access Facebook’s internal network, the wire service added.
Mangham pleaded guilty to the charges on December 13 of last year.
Mangham’s attorney, Tony Ventham, called him an “ethical hacker” and a self-described security consultant who “saw this as a challenge,” the Telegraph reported. Ventham added that Mangham “was in his own world, his own bedroom, his own mind, his own project and certainly his intention throughout was to contact Facebook in due course when he had rectified their problems.”
“The court heard he was of good character but showed strong indications of Asperger syndrome, and may have been trying to prove himself to his father, who works in the computer industry,” the British newspaper added.
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