Student Jailed for Hacking Facebook

[nixcookies]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...shire-17079853

To paraphrase the article:
A British student has been jailed for eight months for hacking facebook and stealing "invaluable" information from the company and while he stated he only done it to help improve the security of the website, in which he has done similar actions with yahoo who rewarded him for doing so the judge disagreed and sentenced him to jail. Although he did nothing with that information he could have potentially caused "very serious consequences".

I was just curious how you guys thought about this sentence, the hacking of websites in general and the appropriate sentence (if any) should that person be subjected to. Also do you think if more sentences like this or the one proposed were handed out it could deter people from this kind of crime?

I myself am a little conflicted about what to think, on the one hand the information he stole could have done some damage to the company but personally I just don't view this as jail time material. I'm a little disappointed by the lack of transparency but I suppose it can't be helped, I just can't help but think if this wasn't facebook and a smaller company then he wouldn't have been given that kind of sentence.

With that said the people I've spoken to said the sentence wasn't enough and just because he didn't use that information doesn't mean the sentence should be more lenient and should be punished with more jail time, so it will be interesting you get your guys view.

[Dashield28]

I just stole a million dollars from the bank to prove that the security sucked.

It was a joke but only I was in on it.

Please dont jail me.

Questions?

[Runeforged]

I believe this is pretty much the same as what Anonymous was doing a while back, I remember a pretty good analogy for describing this. A defense company develops a new type of bulletproof vest, the helpful person points out a serious flaw, Anonymous (or the student in this case) just shoots the person wearing it to point out the same flaw.

[BLCalliente]

Duh, he should be banned from using a computer until his 18th birthday.

Precedent has already been set.

United States Government vs. Dade Murphy (1988).

[Yunru]

They jalled him because he did a bad comercial for the company--less ppl trusting the site=less money. Simple as that. If he was in russa he would be hanged for sure.

[Pendulous]

I don't get why people do this, and then think they can get away with it. There's a big difference between hacking a site, and talking to a site and telling them that you can hack them. If you go with the latter, you might even find yourself a nice little career in security. Oh well. Max jail time.

[Reg]

Good. People who commit a crime to prove a point should be held just as accountable as someone who does it with malicious intent.

[Deleted]

I don't get why people do this, and then think they can get away with it. There's a big difference between hacking a site, and talking to a site and telling them that you can hack them. If you go with the latter, you might even find yourself a nice little career in security. Oh well. Max jail time.

You can't be serious....

[anveena]

Ship him off to Gitmo.

[cFortyfive]

Since obviously nothing happened - a bit of community service at most.

[Thallidomaniac]

You can't be serious....

At least it's not one of those nutjob countries where you get the death penalty for doing that. Or even the death penalty for a lesser crime.

But yes, that kid had it coming for going the douchebag route.

[Aspect of Death]

Only get jail time because its facebook. If he hacked anything else (like MMO or lal any site) he would not have gotten jail time or anything..

Since he hacked BookFace, i say GJ to him! and i dont think he deserve 8months (lol almost more than rapeist gets) or any time for that matter..

[-Zait-]

Community service imho

[Jasyn]

Duh, he should be banned from using a computer until his 18th birthday.

Precedent has already been set.

United States Government vs. Dade Murphy (1988).

I lol'd

In all seriousness though, instead of actually breaking in he should have just reported the security flaw.

[Mozu]

I just stole a million dollars from the bank to prove that the security sucked.

It was a joke but only I was in on it.

Please dont jail me.

Questions?

If you're going to use this analogy, it'd be like stealing 1 million dollars from the bank then going up to the manager with the entire sum in a bag and giving it back saying, "Your safe sucks, and this is why:" which, imo, shouldn't be punished.

[Purlina]

If you're going to use this analogy, it'd be like stealing 1 million dollars from the bank then going up to the manager with the entire sum in a bag and giving it back saying, "Your safe sucks, and this is why:" which, imo, shouldn't be punished.

I rob a bank...

When they catch me I hand them back the money and tell them it was a joke. (He didn't come foward until they caught him.)


"Mangham had ultimately stolen "invaluable" intellectual property, which he downloaded on to an external hard drive, said Mr Patel.

Facebook discovered the infiltration during a system check even though the defendant deleted his electronic footprint to cover his tracks."

[BLCalliente]

I lol'd

In all seriousness though, instead of actually breaking in he should have just reported the security flaw.

Glad somebody caught that.

[Jasyn]

Glad somebody caught that.

It helps that I was old enough to appreciate it when it came out. Sad to think how much of the WoW population was born since 1995...

[minro]

I dont know what the big deal is. He only copied some random garbage file.

[mrwingtipshoes]

The "I only did it to show it could be done!" Should ALWAYS be met with "We only punished him to the max of the law to show it could be done!"