The man who stole corporate documents from Twitter back in 2009 may not have attracted enough attention with that stunt to land himself behind bars, but the same cannot be said of his latest foray into Barack Obama’s Twitter accounts. The 25-year-old French hacker alleged of both crimes was arrested on Tuesday in France.
French investigators and the U.S. Federal Bureau worked together to track down the man, who goes by the alias “Hacker Croll.”Although he was set free the day after his arrest with a court date, Croll now faces up to two years of jail time when he goes to trial.
Besides leaking documents to TechCrunch back in 2009, Hacker Croll is accused of accessing the Twitter accounts of both employees and celebrities, including Britney Spears and Barack Obama. According to French police, he was able to access employee passwords by using Google searches and social networking sites to answer the routine personal questions the site asks when users lose a password.
In an interview with Sky News, Croll – whose real first name is Francois – claims he acted with good intentions. “I am not a hacker. I am a kind pirate,” Sky reports he told reporters at his parents’ home, where he lives. “I did not act with a destructive aim… I wanted to warn them, to show up the faults in the system.”
