Freedom for student who hacked into Facebook

A STUDENT who was jailed for hacking into Facebook in the most extensive attack on social media ever to come before a British court has been freed after winning an appeal.

By The Newsroom

Published 5th Apr 2012, 07:00 BST

Glenn Mangham, 26, of Cornlands Road, York, infiltrated the social networking giant while using a computer in a bedroom at his parents’ home.

He was jailed for eight months at Southwark Crown Court in February after admitting three counts of unauthorised access to computer material and unauthorised modification of computer data. But three judges at the Court of Appeal in London yesterday cut his sentence in half, making him immediately eligible to be tagged and released.

Mangham claimed he hacked into Facebook to highlight security flaws, but the California-based website spent more than £126,000 dealing with the security breach. The trial heard that the Mangham had risked destroying “the whole enterprise” and was investigated by the FBI.