Facebook Hires Hacker George Hotz, IPhone And PlayStation 3 Jailbreaker: REPORT (UPDATE)

*Scroll down for update.*

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em--or, in Facebook's case, hire 'em full time.

According to TechUnwrapped, Facebook now employs George Hotz, the young hacker who has drawn the legal ire of tech giants Apple and Sony. Hotz, who also goes by the online handle "Geohot," is said to be working at Facebook, possibly on a secretive new iPad app.

TechUnwrapped reported on Saturday that Chronic-Dev Team member Joshua Hill first outed Hotz's status at Facebook. During an online interview, Hill stated that Hotz had backed out of an iPad 2 hacking challenge because of his current day job at the social network.

Techmeme's Gabe Rivera later tweeted that Hotz's Facebook profile corroborated Hill's claims.

"Facebook is really an amazing place to work...first hackathon over," reads a June 22 post on Hotz's Facebook wall.

A Facebook spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

In 2007, Hotz gained notoriety for jailbreaking Apple's iPhone, allowing the handset (and, subsequently, other devices running Apple's iOS software) to be used outside AT&T's network.

Then, in 2010, Hotz published a jailbreak for Sony's PlayStation 3 gaming console, which Sony countered with a high-profile suit against Hotz in early 2011. The company eventually settled with Hotz out of court, but their action against the hacker led to a major cyberattack on the PlayStation gaming network that was allegedly carried out by hacktivist collective Anonymous. A host of other attacks on the PSN followed, including one that led Sony to take the entire global network offline for weeks.

UPDATE: According to Read Write Web, Facebook has confirmed that George Hotz is an employee at the social network, though a spokesperson divulged no further details.

Comments

[AnymZ]

04:47 PM on 07/08/2011

Also love how no one ever mentions he was basically kicked out of our college because he hacked his ID card to be able to access every door on campus. And used this ability freely to access unauthorized rooms, which is how they caught him.

[wilray]

01:19 AM on 06/28/2011

You can tell this guy is way smart; he has a forehead like a mentat.

[therealone]

05:12 PM on 06/27/2011

Sounds like the Republican Party, and their hired employees.

[Tamberg]

04:15 PM on 06/27/2011

Tech companies do this all the time. This is not a big deal. Hackers are talented people and companies will pay for talent.

[Alvin Anderson]

04:06 PM on 06/27/2011

I can't wait to download an app from a knon Hacker. What could go wrong, besides imbeded viruses, spyware for unkown people/Hackers. I've only lost one computer from a Virus invented by some Hacker somewhere. Duh--maybe I won't download any Facebook Apps in the future.

[Ty Martin]

02:31 PM on 06/27/2011

So glad a hacker who cracked these closed systems is now working at the company with the largest collection of personal data and information on the planet. Let's cross our fingers he's kept happy.

[matt grainger]

03:40 PM on 06/27/2011

here here!

[Dan Crabtree]

01:14 PM on 06/27/2011

And who says crime does not pay..

[dwhuston]

02:14 PM on 06/27/2011

He to my knowledge has committed no crimes.

[matt grainger]

03:41 PM on 06/27/2011

I think that the jailbreak on the ps3 may have voided the terms and conditions for use... or something. I have asked some folks if jailbreaking a device is illegal, and i have heard no, and it depends.

[Lo Wang2]

11:52 AM on 06/27/2011

Really?? Really???

Do we have to get into hacker vs cyber criminal AGAIN, and AGAIN, and AGAIN, until the huffington post community understands the difference between cybercriminal and hacker.(although the two overlap sometimes).

George Hotz attacked nothing, broke into nothing. All he did hacked was a piece of hardware HE BOUGHT AND OWNED. He was harassed and legally intimidated by no-friend-to-the-common-man RIAA member corporation sony, for violating their ridiculous and oh-so morally bankrupt user agreement.

I hope most of you here who think that George Hotz is a morally bankrupt criminal, or that most hackers are morally bankrupt turn your back on the protestors trespassing in that oh-so-illegal sit in that happened in Arizona, or the protestors in Wisconsin.

You want a corporate free America, stop siding with them when it comes down to crunch time. Mabey if anything you should be yelling at Hotz for accepting a job with a morally bankrupt company. Or mabey this might be an opportunity for facebook to FIND moral fiber.

[therealone]

05:13 PM on 06/27/2011

Mabey, just mabey.

[ryokuin takeda]

11:48 AM on 06/27/2011

Anonymous did not hack the PSN. Anonymous took down sony.com, sonystyle.com, and a few other websites with a DoS attack. Denial of Service is NOT hacking. Its flooding, like the Mississippi. The PSN hackers are still at large and have not been apprehended, and are not associated with Anonymous in any way.

[Christian M Rendon]

11:01 AM on 06/27/2011

Shades of "To catch a thief".

[Drect]

10:57 AM on 06/27/2011

People need to realize that by hiring this guy he really can't do too much illegal activity anymore. Atleast not the high profile stuff, if he wants to keep his new and most likely high paying job.

For those who think this guy is a "hood" then rejoice. He been essentially taken off the hacking market as evidenced by him leaving the iPad 2 hacking contest.

[Desolati0n]

11:32 AM on 06/27/2011

With this logic, it is amazing our government and or corporations don't do more hiring of this kind.

[Drect]

12:45 PM on 06/27/2011

You would be surprised how many former hackers are now working for the government.

[dwhuston]

02:16 PM on 06/27/2011

He was not doing anything illegal.

[Drect]

02:40 PM on 06/27/2011

Correct, my mistake.

[Idriss Nokour]

10:57 AM on 06/27/2011

Facebook knows how to play the game!

[jo smith456]

10:34 AM on 06/27/2011

...just wondering...

What if Sony claimed that "hacking of its product technology (similar to those used in PS3)" can "ENDANGER NATIONAL SECURITY"?

As we all know, whenever the g-men say, for "National Security" sake (or for the "protection of the men and women fighting for our freedom"), politicians again strangle our individual freedoms.

[tissa]

10:21 AM on 06/27/2011

Only in the tech world can you do something illegal and then find a job in the same industry....

[Kyrka]

10:38 AM on 06/27/2011

I'm guessing you've never heard of banking... or politics.

[tissa]

11:11 AM on 06/27/2011

LOL, you got me!

[TypicalAmurican]

10:40 AM on 06/27/2011

Here's a few off the top of my head that doing things in an illegal manner can find you a job in industry (or maintain current positions):

Banking, corporate executives, insurance, auto industry, oil industry, politicians, mining, nuclear energy, other utilities, anything that produces commodities, war, prison, police, catholic church, and on and on.

[tissa]

11:12 AM on 06/27/2011

LOL, I got your point.

[Andy49]

10:21 AM on 06/27/2011

Criminal behavior is not a resume?