Obama Twitter Hacker Convicted

French Man Hacked Into Several Famous Accounts

A court in Central France has convicted a man after he apparently hacked into President Barack Obama's Twitter account.

Francois Cousteix, who goes by the name "Hacker Croll" online, hacked into the accounts of President Obama, Britney Spears and Lily Allen, among other celebrities in April 2009.

Cousteix has no specialized computer training. He got into the accounts by searching information most commonly used for passwords, like pet names and birth dates. He said he had good intentions in hacking the accounts.

"It's a message I wanted to get out to Internet users, to show them that no system is invulnerable," Cousteix told a French television station after his arrest.

On Friday, a court gave him a five-month suspended prison sentence. His lawyer says that Cousteix will return to his job at Rentabilaweb, a web marketing and micropayment site. He had gotten the job partly thanks to the infamy of his celebrity hacking.

Despite infiltrating his Twitter account, Cousteix never had any access to sensitive information surrounding President Obama.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
Contact Us