UK Student Gets 8 Months in Prison for Hacking Facebook
UK Student Gets 8 Months in Prison for Hacking Facebook
Posted 02/17/2012 at 3:30pm
| by Ryan Whitwam
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A UK court handed down an 8 month sentence this week to a British student convicted of infiltrating Facebook’s internal network. 26 year-old Glenn Mangham hacked into Facebook’s servers from his home in York, England last Spring. Facebook, believing it was the victim of industrial espionage, called in the feds. It didn’t take long to track down Mangham.
Prosecutors have called this attack both “extensive and flagrant.” Facebook told the court that it had to spend $200,000 dealing with the matter. Though, that seems to be what Mangham wanted. It was his claim that he was only attempting to show Facebook that its system was insecure, as he had done in the past with Yahoo. The court was having none of it, ruling that his actions were malicious in nature.
No data was taken in the attacks, and Facebook has since sealed the hole that Mangham exploited. What’s your take on this? Was Mangham a helpful hacker, or a cyber-thug out for himself?
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Keith E. Whisman
February 20, 2012 at 10:46pm
He's a student and now he gets to learn all about prison sex. Haven't any of your seen Shawshank Redemption?
bling581
February 20, 2012 at 11:04am
"What’s your take on this? Was Mangham a helpful hacker, or a cyber-thug out for himself?"
Do I think his actions were justified and should he be pardoned? That's not something that I could easily answer. There's too many shades of gray involved.
Do I think Facebook and the courts went overboard? Yes, yes and yes!
Carbon
February 18, 2012 at 1:27pm
He'll get a job offer from Google or the C.I.A. when he gets out, so he'll be just fine!
siramic
February 18, 2012 at 4:44am
Oh, I see, he was doing it for our good, to show us the flaws in Facebook's security...maybe if he said he was a part of Anonymous, doing all of us this favor, it would have been deemed "acceptable"?
Ittechguy7
February 17, 2012 at 5:48pm
The courts can suck it. That kid didn't do anything malicious.
Army Of One
February 17, 2012 at 6:20pm
Awesome,
So if you come home from work one day and see me sitting in your living room watching TV you shouldn't get angry at all. A simple "thank you" is all I expect because I pointed out the flaw in the locks in your house.
thetechchild
February 18, 2012 at 12:38am
The difference is that somebody that broke into a home and then sat down to watch TV would essentially be "inside" the house still. They could still cause serious damage, when they could've just left a note on the inside of the door saying "Get a new lock."
This case is a very effective way of publicizing a note like that for all the people who rely on the security of the lock, and considering they didn't even find any evidence of malicious action, they have no real grounds for such a harsh sentence.
I agree with an earlier reply -- people are just scared sheep when they hear "hacker." If they weren't so stupid as to leave networks wide open and attempt to catch every wayward hacker, they might realize that when something like this pops up, they should just fix it as fast as possible and hire the hacker as a security consultant.
Ghok
February 17, 2012 at 10:11pm
Well, there is a big difference between that and finding an exploit in facebook. Home invasion is a much more serious crime.
I think this guy should be punished, but I reckon most people who do similar harmless crimes don't get jail time.
There is a big problem with harsher sentences being handed out just because the crime happens to be done through a computer. Simply because most people don't understand the crime being committed. They just hear "hacker" and piss themselves.
kamikaji
February 17, 2012 at 6:27pm
That would be fine by me if you didn't steal anything or do any harm. Just like this kid. He didn't do anything after he broke in, so why are they prosecuting him?
biggiebob12345
February 17, 2012 at 4:40pm
Use the same line from The Social Network:
------------
I think I deserve a thank you.Excuse me?
Yes.
Why do you think you deserve a thank you?
I pointed out gaping security flaws.
AntonioGarrison
February 17, 2012 at 3:40pm
White hat hackers get jail-time, while black hat hackers are roaming free wreaking havoc and nobody does anything about it. Yes, this guy might have cause Facebook some money. Though if someone else had found the exploit or hole it could have easily cost them a more.
Give this man a bonus or a job, not jail time.
mrclean816
February 17, 2012 at 7:50pm
Maybe if he really wanted to help he could have called them up to let them know.
Maybe.... he didn't want to call them up an let them know because *now here's the big secret* he didn't want to help.
Joji
February 17, 2012 at 4:06pm
Because the world is a greedy place. Big cooperation all around the world want nothing else than profit, profit, and more profit. It's a shameful world we live in.
jth
February 18, 2012 at 8:29pm
You do know that striving for profit against all the other big greedy corporations is what drives innovation right? If we all lived in a hippy commune there would be no pressure to innovate and this sad world we all live in, as you put it, would be much further behind.
tekknyne
February 19, 2012 at 11:58am
LOL! You keep right on believing that my friend. Whatever you need to tell yourself to justify your own greed and get some sleep at night. Oh yeah, and Jesus loves you more than dirty hippies. The Bible says so and it is true, because it says so in the Bible.
rawrnomnom
February 17, 2012 at 3:35pm
I think when he gets out he's going to have plenty of job offers.
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