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Android app hacker jailed for a year

Nicola Hebden
Nicola Hebden - [email protected]
Android app hacker jailed for a year

A man has been sentenced to one year in prison, with six months house arrest, for hacking Android apps. The hacking affected at least 17,000 smart phones and causing €500,000 of damage.

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The man, identified by media only as Dylan, 20, from Amiens, was yesterday given a one year prison sentence, of which six months will be on probation with an electronic tag, for hacking apps on unlocked Android phones.

Targeting illegal platforms on which oweners of so-called “jailbroken” phones could download apps, Dylan hacked into the most popular and planted code he had written in just one hour.

Victims who downloaded the targeted apps would then receive 30 text messages, each skimming €4,50 from their phone bill.

Dylan admitted earning €4,000 through the scam, which he used to buy IT equipment and video games.

He claimed he had the idea one evening in October 2011, while he was watching television. Writing code had been a hobby of his since he was nine.

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