Facebook Hacker Given 12 Month Sentence

A man from Sussex has been handed a 12 month sentence for hacking into a private Facebook account.

Gareth Crosskey will spend the next year in jail after committing two offences under the Computer Misuse Act.

Facebook hack

In January last year, Crosskey gained unauthorised access to another individual’s Facebook account and the breach was reported to the FBI, who traced the source of the hack to the UK. The information was referred to the Metropolitan Police Service’s Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU), who tracked Crosskey down.

Police arrested him at his home and seized computers as well as other storage devices for analysis, before he was taken to Worthing police station to be interviewed. After being released on bail, Crosskey was charged on 29 February for two offences.

Crosskey pleaded guilty to offences under sections 1 and 3 of the Computer Misuse Act of 1990, namely causing a computer to perform a function to secure unauthorised access to a programme or data and unauthorised acts with intent to impair operation of or prevent or hinder access to a computer.

“The PCeU are working to detect and bring before the courts those responsible for this type of offence,” said the Metropolitan Police. “Today’s result should act as a deterrent to any individuals thinking of participating in this type of criminal activity. By taking swift action, PCeU officers were able to quickly detain Crosskey thereby preventing further disruption to the victim.”

In February, a 26-year old student from York was jailed for eight months for hacking into Facebook in what the court called the most serious social media hacking case in the UK to date, while in May 2010, a woman was sentenced to three months imprisonment for hacking into her ex-boyfriend’s account after she accused him of rape.

Security continues to be a concern for the social network, as demonstrated by the hacking of Mark Zuckerberg’s fan page last year.

How well do you know Internet security? Try our quiz and find out!