French man convicted for hacking Obama’s Twitter

A French court has convicted a young man accused of hacking president Barack Obama’s official Twitter account, giving him a five-month suspended sentence.

“The verdict is satisfying, given all the media pressure that built up,” attorney Jean-Francois Canis told The Age.

Francois Cousteix, who goes by the online name “Hacker Croll”, also infiltrated the Twitter accounts of celebrities including Britney Spears and Lily Allen.

Cousteix says he infiltrated the accounts to demonstrate how unsecure they were, and says computer users should take security issues more seriously.