As reported by BBC news 26 year old software development student, whose defence lawyers described as an ethical hacker, has been jailed for eight months.

A Judge rejected Glen Mangham’s claim that his penetration of Facebook’s systems were inspired by his previous infiltration Yahoo’s systems to demonstrate how he could improve their security.  Yahoo had previously rewarded Mangham for his efforts. Mangham described his client as having a “strong moral stance” in identifying system vulnerabilities.

No personal data was compromised as a result of Mangham’s activities. Mangham made full admissions to the Police when interviewed about the unlawful access which he conducted from his bedroom at home.

Facebook detected the intrusion despite Mangham having erased his electronic footprint.

Judge Alistair McCreath admonished Mangham in sentencing remarks for unlawfully accessing Facebook’s site, stating his actions were not harmless and had “real consequences and very serious potential consequences” for Facebook.

McCreath  acknowledged  Mangham had no intention to pass on any information he derived from or to derive any financial benefit from his activities, however told Mangham that his activities were “not just a bit of harmless experimentation”.

Facebook first became aware of a security breach in their internal networks in April and called in the FBI in a co-ordinated attempt to discover it’s source, costing the company $200,000 according to Prosecutors.