Facebook hacker comes clean on 'what really happened'

26.04.2012
The hacker who stole Facebook's source code has gone public with a deeper explanation of how he penetrated the world's most popular social network.

Glenn Mangham, of York, England, posted a on his blog and a video, saying that he accepts full responsibility for his actions and that he did not think through the potential ramifications.

"Strictly speaking what I did broke the law because at the time and subsequently it was not authorized," Mangham wrote. "I was working under the premise that sometimes it is better to seek forgiveness than to ask permission."

Mangham implied he meant to contact Facebook once he had noticed the social-networking site had observed his intrusions, which he did little to hide. He didn't use proxy servers because he said it made auditing take longer due to the time delay between each request made to a server. He was also hoping that even when he got caught, Facebook would let him off the hook.

That didn't happen. He was charged and eventually pleaded guilty to three counts of unauthorized access to computer material and unauthorized modification of computer data, according to in York.

Mangham was sentenced to eight months in prison in February, but the sentence was reduced to four months by an appeals court earlier this month. He was then eligible for release, subject to electronic monitoring and restrictions on his internet use.