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Freed Facebook hack Brit vents fury at $200k cleanup claim

Mangham longs for security job after sentence halved on appeal

He hits out at Facebook's $200,000 allegation

The undergraduate was mainly angry at what he claimed was Facebook's attempts to exaggerate the damage and disruption he had supposedly caused, as well as its attempt to "milk publicity" from the case:

I do not believe for a minute that this whole thing actually cost $200,000 [£122,000] to do. I fully accept that there was a cost but I cannot imagine how it ever reached such dizzying heights. Perhaps had they given some evidence to support and justify it then I would have been less critical here. Instead it was submitted very close to sentencing and accepted without any real scrutiny.

Based on the sentencing judge's comments this was one of the reasons he felt a custodial sentence inevitable.

Mangham's passport image was given to Facebook representatives and subsequently used as "some sort of trophy" in an article in Forbes, he said. Mangham, who accused Facebook of "maligning" his character during the trial, plans to return to his studies, which were disrupted by his prosecution. He still holds out the hope of getting a job in computer security:

I definitely plan to finish the final year of my degree, which was disrupted because of all the fuss and the bail conditions. I also hope to continue in the area of penetration testing as it is something that I really enjoy.

The 26-year-old does appear to be chastened by his experience, however:

I will be more cautious to have explicit permission in future. I am hoping that this incident has not caused irreparable damage to my reputation and prospects but I hope people can see why I needed to speak out. Had i quietly taken my beat down then only the 'nasty' version of events would be etched on to the internet. I would hope that telling my side of things helps people to see that where hacking is concerned, things are seldom black and white.

We asked Facebook to comment on Mangham's published criticism of its handling of his prosecution. A spokeswoman for the social network declined this invitation, saying it had nothing to add beyond its previous statement on the case.

In his blog post, Mangham concludes that he is lucky to have avoided the threat of extradition that other UK citizens are desperately fending off after they were accused of breaking US laws:

I am relieved that the ordeal is now over and that I can finally get on with my life. Despite all my moaning I suppose that in many respects I have been very lucky. I could have been subjected to the same kind of treatment as Gary McKinnon and Richard O’Dwyer and Christopher Tappin.

The lopsided-extradition treaty is doing a marvellous job at ensuring British citizens are whisked off to cloud-cuckoo land to be buried in some desert for a few years. I thank my lucky stars that I somehow avoided that fate, despite being such an obvious candidate for it.

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