Ethical hacker jailed for discovering Facebook security vulnerabilities

Diamonddavej writes: The BBC reports that software development student Glenn Mangham, 26, of Cornlands Road, York, UK was jailed 17 February 2012 for 8 months for computer misuse, after he discovered serious Facebook security vulnerabilities. Hacking from his bedroom, Mangham gained access to three of Facebook's servers and was able to download to an external hardrive the social network's "invaluable" intellectual intellectual property (source code). Mangham's defence lawyer, Mr. Ventham, pointed out that Mangham is an "ethical hacker" and runs a tax registered security company. The court heard Mangham previously breached Yahoo's security, compiled a vulnerability report and passed on to Yahoo; he was paid "$7000 for this achievement" and he was merely trying to repeat the same routine with Facebook. But passing sentence, Judge Alistair McCreath told Mangham, that despite that he did not intend to pass on the information gathered, nor did he intend to make any money from his hack, his actions were not harmless and had "real consequences and very serious potential consequences" for Facebook. Persecutor, Mr. Patel, said Facebook spent "$200,000 (£126,400) dealing with Mangham's crime, ...