Hackers cut a deal and avoid prison in MySpace extortion case
A pair of hackers, accused of trying to extort $150,000 from the world's largest social networking site MySpace, have cut a deal with prosecutors and will avoid jail time. Suffolk County New York residents Shaun Harrison and Saverio Mondelli are accused of selling code that tracked MySpace users' IP and email addresses. The pair now will get three years of probation which is quite a bit better than the four years in prison that they could have received.
The hackers were selling code via a website that could track MySpace users' IP and email addresses. For $30 dollars, potential buyers would install the code into their MySpace profiles and then datamine the information from visitors and friends of the profile.
The pair promised the code was a foolproof way to grab personal MySpace information and demanded $150,000 from MySpace. Secret Service agents posing as MySpace representatives arrested the pair in Los Angeles.
Harrison and Mondelli were accused of multiple counts of attempted extortion and pleaded no contest in exchange for probation and a host of other restrictions. The pair will be limited to one email address each and will have to perform 160 hours of community service. Prosecutors also mandated $13500 in restitution payments.
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Humphrey Cheung was a senior editor at Tom's Hardware, covering a range of topics on computing and consumer electronics. You can find more of his work in many major publications, including CNN and FOX, to name a few.