MySpace teen hackers to face jail terms

TWO New York teenagers were in police custody Wednesday facing charges of illegal computer access and attempted extortion after they allegedly threatened to disrupt the popular teen website MySpace.com unless its operators paid them $150,000 (€117,000), prosecutors said.

Shaun Harrison, 18, and Saverio Mondelli, 19, of Suffolk County, New York, allegedly hacked into the social networking site and stole personal information of MySpace users.

After MySpace removed them from the site, the pair threatened to distribute a foolproof method for stealing information unless MySpace paid them $150,000, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.