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back to article UK man to spend year in the clink for Facebook account hack

A British man has been jailed for a year after hacking into the Facebook account of a US citizen. Gareth Crosskey, 21, of Avon Close, Lancing, in West Sussex, hacked into his unnamed victim's profile on 12 January 2011, gaining access to an e-mail account in the process. The breach was reported to the FBI, which traced the …

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      1. Big Dumb Guys Wife
        Reply Icon

        Re: There must be more to this................

        WHAT HAS MY HUSBAND EVER DONE TO YOU?

        ALSO HE DOESN'T HAVE FACEBOOK + SPACE OR WHATEVER ITS CALLED DUE TO A RESTRAINING ORDER. HE SHOULD NEVER OF SET UP A GOAT APPRECIATION PAGE

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        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          The trolls are strong with this one.

          Obi-one Ka-troll-bi, you're, my only troll...

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    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: There must be more to this................

      The PCeU statement says that as well as unauthorised access, he was done for "...unauthorised acts with intent to impair operation of or prevent/hinder access to a computer", which suggests that he did something when he got in (though it might have been something as simple as changing the account password, I suppose).

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Digital equivalent of breaking and entering.

    Which is separate to theft. Both of which would have carried smaller sentences in the physical world.

    If we can draw these parallels then surely the sentences should be somewhat similar.

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    1. Steve Evans
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      Re: Digital equivalent of breaking and entering.

      If you want to draw those comparisons, keep going...

      If the password is weak, say "password", couldn't you then claim the door wasn't even locked... So you just walked in? It then become trespass, a civil, not criminal offence in the UK.

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      1. Nick Ryan Silver badge
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        Re: Digital equivalent of breaking and entering.

        Thanks to nu-labour and cronies (made entirely of politicians who are/were lawyers or very closely related to them), pretty much everything in the UK is now a criminal offence and not civil.

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      2. lotus49
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        Thumb Down

        Re: Digital equivalent of breaking and entering.

        That is not correct.

        Trespass is merely wandering onto property without permission. Breaking and entering involves the use of force (which may only be sufficient to push open an unlocked door) to enter a property without permission with the intention of committing a further offence, usually theft.

        Consequently, it's still breaking and entering (and therefore criminal) rather than trespass (which, as you rightly point out, is a civil offense) even if the door is unlocked if you do so with the intention of stealing something.

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      3. lotus49
        Reply Icon
        Thumb Down

        Re: Digital equivalent of breaking and entering.

        Also, the Computer Misuse Act prohibits using computer systems without authorisation regardless of whether you had to crack/guess a password. Even if there were no password at all but you knew you were not authorised to access something, it would be a breach of the Act (quite rightly in my view).

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      4. Stevie
        Reply Icon

        Re: Digital equivalent of breaking and entering.

        Ah, but it would trespass in a USA house without the proper immigration paperwork, which is a Homeland Security matter (assuming the boob wasn't shot under the umbrella of various states' "justifiable self defence" statute).

        He's lucky he wasn't sent somewhere for a manicure with extreme prejudice.

        In any event, he wasn't supposed to be there, it was against the law in both countries, is well-known to be against the law and the obvious path if you can't face a spell in jankers iis therefore clearly seen to be "do not do this sort of thing".

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  3. Rovindi
    Windows

    I agree with many on here, the term seems unusually severe. Apart from the fact that he`ll only serve at 30% before being turfed out and given tag/home custody, it just seems a tad severe. A mate of mine in the UK got done last year for dealing wadges of mary-jane and despite previous for being a bit vicious/fighty in his youth, he got six months and served only three.

    It`s all a bit inconsistent.

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    All those having a good laugh, get more for nicking a packet of Toffos down the corner shop, etc, just be thankful this prick decided to play around Facebook where bugger all actually matters and not go after bank accounts or Paypal accounts, there's enough arseholes doing that already. Hopefully locking a few of these lesser pricks up first will make a few more think twice, though somehow I doubt it as the rewards are probably too great!

    Don't come up with that crap about "Well people should have better passwords." or "FB should have better security demands.", yes granted they should but saying my window locks were easily broken by a bloody great crowbar still makes ratboy a piece of scum for breaking and entering my property!

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  5. Marty
    Joke

    the question that hasn’t been asked, if it was a British persons facebook account hacked, and you went to the police to report it, the most likelihood is that you will get told to fuck off....

    I went to the police about my stolen mobile phone that was taken from inside my house... I found out who it was, a list of witnesses who had seen the person with the phone, a list of people the person had called, a witness who had seen the person hanging around in the morning, and also running out of the block of flats around the time my phone went missing. they had called their own home number and the next door neighbours phone.... I handed them all the evidence, and they did fuck all....

    Joke, because our law enforcement and justice system is one.....

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      @Marty

      Make a formal complaint to the IPCC

      http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/en/Pages/default.aspx

      1) Ask them to tell you why nothing happened. 2) Ask them to review the file presented to the CPS and to give an opinion as to the quality of that file.

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      1. Marty
        Reply Icon

        Re: @Marty

        To be honest, this happened quite a few years ago when my nokia 3310 was a top of the range phone lol..

        another factor that would have been taken into account was the fact the little scroat was a 9 year old girl....the youngest daughter in the family of the lowest bunch of scumbags in the area. one person who had previously reported them to the plod was later stabbed in the led with a fork.... add to that, the witness who seen her with the phone was a distent relitive through marrage (my sisters, husbands, farthers, second wifes daughter) and was only 14 herself... she would proberbly have been intimidated enough to withdraw her statement, without that it would have been dificult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.....

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Had the sentence for a real world crime such as mugging been greater, then sure, but, this, this is just :/

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Correction: 6 months in the clink

    UK discount. Sentenced to 12 months usually means 6 months actually spent in prison.

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  8. dephormation.org.uk
    WTF?

    12 months for hacking one Facebook account?

    Where would that leave BT/Phorm then?

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    isn;t the punishment supposed to match the crime/damage as opposed to say "sending a warning"

    mars bar stealer sentenced to life for example

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dumb as a rock

    Phuck around, go to prison. You lose.

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  11. h3

    Wonder what the law is on posting goatse / lemonparty / tubgirl etc etc on someones facebook feed (That they leave logged in on my computer despite repeated instructions to the contrary).

    As far as I am concerned (and have explicitly stated) leave it on my computer and I will do this. (Only thing that sort of seems to work at all).

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  12. Jason Hindle

    Harsh but not inconsistent

    Another example of how the law, and sentencing in this country is often distorted by knee jerk legislation. However, the sentence seems to be consistent with other cases of computer misuse so I wouldn't think the judge was going out of his way to be unfair.

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  13. Local Group
    Unhappy

    I know there's a connection here, but what?

    Court sentences Crosskey on Wednesday May 16 to 12 months in the slammer for hacking facebook.

    facebook's troubled initial public offering is Friday May 18; it needs all the positive spin it can get.

    Just a weird coincidence, right?

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  14. h3

    Another thing I don't get is the relative sentencing between this and the original phone hacking thing. (How is one Facebook account worse than a lot of peoples phones ?)

    (Also seems to be worse than burglary from the odd persons I have known to be sentenced for that).

    Another person I know got 6 months for supply of class A drugs (E's) this is probably 10 years ago.

    Just doesn't seem fair or proportionate in any shape or form.

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  15. Joe 48

    Don't worry, hack facebooks core network and you'll only get 8!!

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/20/facebook_hacker_jailed/

    Say no more.

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  16. Jeffrey Jefferson
    Thumb Down

    The UK seriously needs a better justice system..

    Plead guilty and you've halved your time, good behavior and you've halved it again! 3 months for rape and 6 months for that?!? I'm baffled.

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  17. Jeffrey Jefferson

    ^^^

    3 years**

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  18. Barrie Shepherd

    I suspect that the reason this was handled in the UK was to protect the identity of the person whose account was hacked. It's probable that if the case was heard in the US the identity would have to have been revealed . There must be more to this than reported.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Who's account was hacked ?

      I agree with this.

      I want to know the name of the victim in this case.

      If the ase was heard in open court then why isn't the victims name published ?

      If there is a specific order that the victims name isn't published then I suspect it might be some high profile person and this in itself is evidence of a two tier justice system.

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  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If in denial...

    ...the judicial system will set you straight.

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  20. ZenCoder

    I bet the real crime was ..

    The police in general can't be bothered with minor crimes so I'm betting the real crime is messing with an important person.

    I'm also guessing that if said important person had their house broken into, mobile phone stolen, punched in the face ... the police response would also be much different than when the same crime happens to us ordinary unimportant folk.

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  21. JaitcH
    FAIL

    Why hack Facebook?

    Wit a little patience FBs security will fail again and display all the goodies OR they will be sold off to advertisers.

    FB and security / privacy should not be used in the same sentence.

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  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    All those FBI/police hours spent on this?

    Seriously? There's so many unsolved murders, rape cases and so on. And they're spending that much time on something as trivial as this?

    Break into a facebook account and get a year in Jail. Break into someones house and get a slap on the wrist. What nonsense!

    Reminds me when I was at school. You could smash a set of lockers to hell and get sent home for the day, but if you dared to fuck with a computer BIOS then you better be ready for suspension!

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  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The WizDUMB of hacking

    They just don't get it...

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