Glenn Steven Mangham was sentenced by a court of law to eight months in jail for hacking in to Facebook, the social media giant.
The self confessed computer nerd had been taken to court, and pleaded guilty, to three counts of unauthorized modification of computer data, and unauthorized access to computer material; after Facebook had accused him of hacking in to its site and stealing a source code from one of its employees.
He was however released after winning an appeal and his sentence was also halved. But as part of his release conditions he was asked that he was to live and sleep at his home address, not to have any devices that can access the web, and to also keep off the internet.
It is his actions that have led to the many questions asked about his rationale for hacking in to Facebook. There are people who are of the view that he is a crook; while, there are others who argue that he is a saint and was only helping the social site secure its site.
The software development student on being questioned as to why he hacked in to the social site has time and time said that he was only testing its security. This is because at times he feels challenged and it is the reason he had also helped Yahoo increase its security after he was able to show the internet firm a few areas that had weaknesses, and could be easily hacked.
Additionally, Mangham also offers services as a white hat security expert. This is a job where site owners give him permission to hack in to their sites, and then he offers his expertise on the best way in which to secure the sites that he hacks.
It is this history that helped Mangham in court because his lawyers argued that he only hacked in to Facebook so that he could show them the weaknesses that the site had. In fact, the hacker has also said that he has no grudge against Facebook, and that his feelings on the social networking giant firm are neutral, and mildly positive.
However, Facebook in a rejoinder said that Steven after stealing the source code had downloaded it in to an external drive, and then kept if for a few weeks, until the day he was arrested. Facebook is also of the opinion that he had malicious intent because after hacking the social networker’s site, he had covered his electronic footprints, and it was only lucky that he did not use a proxy server, since that was what led authorities to him.
Therefore, there are people who view Mangham, as a run of the mill crook, while there are other people who feel that he was not understood since he was only trying to help the social networking site be more secure.
