The hacker who stole around 400bn virtual poker chips by breaking into Zynga mainframe has been jailed for two years.
British hacker, Ashley Mitchell, 29, of Paignton, stole the identity of two employees and transferred the chips to his fake Facebook accounts. He then, sold the chips through Facebook to other gamers and used the money to fund his £1,000-a-day online gambling addiction.
According to BBC, Mitchell, a former council accounts clerk, pocketed around £53,000 in two months by selling about a third of the stolen chips.
Zynga initially suspected the two employees when the theft came to light in August 2009. However, investigation revealed the work of external hacker for pulling off the heist.
Investigators narrowed the search to Paignton and seized the computers of Mitchell’s neighbors as Mitchell was piggy-backing on their insecure Wi-Fi connection. He was eventually identified because he used his own Facebook profile during one of his attempts to hack into the system.
Mitchell has been jailed for two years after admitting to five charges of hacking and theft, and an extra 30 weeks for breaching a 40-week suspended sentence imposed in 2008 for hacking.
