UK student jailed for Facebook hacking

London: A student who hacked into Facebook in the “most extensive and grave” case of social media hacking to come before a British court has been jailed for eight months.

Glenn Mangham, 26, admitted infiltrating the website from his bedroom in his parents’ house between April and May last year. His actions were said to have risked destroying “the whole enterprise” and sparked fears among American authorities of industrial espionage.

Sentencing Mangham, Judge Alistair McCreath said his actions could have been “utterly disastrous” for Facebook.

Prosecutor Sandip Patel rejected Mangham’s claims, saying: “He acted with determination, undoubted ingenuity and it was sophisticated, it was calculating.”

Facebook spent $200,000 (£126,400) dealing with Mangham’s crime, which triggered a “concerted, time-consuming and costly investigation” by the FBI and British law enforcement, Mr Patel said.