A student from York who hacked into Facebook has been sentenced to eight months in prison, in what was described as "the most extensive and grave incident of social media hacking to be brought before the British courts".
US authorities thought the social networking site was the target of industrial espionage last year, but in actual fact it was 26-year-old Glenn Mangham hacking it. He did so from his bedroom in his parents' house, The Guardian reports.
Mangham claimed he wanted to show Facebook how it could improve its security, as he claimed to have done for Yahoo. But prosecutor Sandip Patel wasn't buying it, telling the court: "He acted with determination and undoubted ingenuity and it was sophisticated, it was calculating. This represents the most extensive and grave incident of social media hacking to be brought before the British courts."
He said Mangham, a software development student, stole invaluable intellectual property between April and May last year. Mangham was raided by Scotland Yard's e-crime unit on 2 June last year.
Mangham's defence lawyer, Tony Ventham, described him as an "ethical hacker". He said: "It was common currency within the community of computer nerds or geeks, if I may refer to him as that, where there was this interesting relationship between companies and people who ethically point out vulnerabilities."
The judge took into consideration Mangham's youth, the fact he had never been in trouble before, as well as his strong indications of Asperger's syndrome.
He acknowledged Mangham didn't intend to pass on information gleaned from the hack, or make any money from it. "But this was not just a bit of harmless experimentation," he said. "You accessed the very heart of the system of an international business of massive size, so this was not just fiddling about in the business records of some tiny business of no great importance."
Mangham also had his access to the Internet restricted and his computer confiscated under a serious crime prevention order.
Should the size of the company have a bearing on the sentence? Is there such a thing as an ethical hacker? And is it fair to restrict someone's access to the Internet? Let me know what you think about it over on Facebook, or below in the comments.
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Comments 13
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anonymous 19 February, 2012 16:17
Hi there, for me, who has had their username and password taken by a hacker before, can easily see why the man got a prison sentence.
I say that all web sites with user names and passwords should tighten their belts and not allow other people or companies to be able to access such details...so web sites as such should always check their users and passwords by letting them choose a colour as well as their passwords, like Facebook all web sites that require user names and passwords should be taken note of in that users password
anonymous 19 February, 2012 16:33
Does Aspergers Syndrome make you more likely to be a criminal? If not, then why should it be a mitigating factor?
anonymous 19 February, 2012 16:38
If the info was not to be passed on, or used for profit, then it was HARMLESS! The Judge is a moron. Worse crimes get lesser punishments. It seems reasonable to infer that this boy was merely indulging in intellectual curiosity. There have been too many instances of British people feeling the heavy hand of the law because of American neuroses .
anonymous 19 February, 2012 16:50
You can mug an old lady in the UK and get community service but do anything against intellectual property and they would like to hang you. Prison sentence is a waste of public money.
anonymous 19 February, 2012 16:53
American neurosis
Paranoi you mean.
Seems also American hypocrisy as the American 5th estate want to be the only ones who can hack.
Treading on their turf bud...........................
Policeman of the wurld no less.
anonymous 19 February, 2012 17:07
i am surprized they dont blame him for the worlds banking crisis as well.
sfj642 19 February, 2012 20:03
The penalty should fit the crime - no violence; no theft (the owners are no worse off); dangerous driving or sexual perversion. Why should we pay to keep this man in prison and give him a prison record so he will find it difficult getting a job in future?
The sensible action would have been to employ him to ensure Facebook could NOT be hacked in future and to sack all the Facebook employees who left the door open for him - he is obviously more competent than they are. He deserves commendation not incarceration.
anonymous 19 February, 2012 23:38
Personally, this guy will be hired in the future. He has shown the pitfalls within a company's structure, and i'm sure businesses will pay good money for someone to identify vulnerabilities.
anonymous 20 February, 2012 00:22
Just another story where the big corporations hit on the little ones. I wonder how many sites mr. mark zuckerberg hacked himself. This is just happening to the poor guy because it was Facebook, I have a few sites myself and if they got hacked which court would even bother to search for the facts? One thing is for sure, when he's done with the 8 months he most likely to get fished (not phished) out of court to work for a big security firm anyways. He's gonna be all right.
anonymous 20 February, 2012 10:10
Somebody Give This guy a medal!
if only real criminals got the same sentence this guys been Dished out for this harmless venture, if he meant any real harm why didn't he use any data he had obtained against Facebook?
I wouldn't blame Glenn Mangham for seeking vengeance and do his worst against Facebook.
cdk86 20 February, 2012 11:44
The simple answer is don't hack anything, it's no ones right to do this and if he wanted to point out security flaws he should've spoken to facebook and asked if they wanted his services. I'm afraid the phrase ethical hacker is rubbish, these people need to get a job and stop pretending as though they are doing anything but breaking the law.
anonymous 24 February, 2012 07:48
I think this is happen good now a days this is a normal thing to hake ids, the punishment should be more strict,
anonymous 24 February, 2012 07:50
I think this is happen good now a days this is a normal thing to hake ids, the punishment should be more strict,
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