A few months ago, there was a lot of hype around the fact that hacker George Hotz, who created jailbreak hacks for the iPhone and was later sued by Sony for hacking into its Playstation 3 console, got a job at Facebook. Hotz, better known in some circles for his nickname GeoHot, went to work at Facebook back in June 2011. Now Business Insider reports that Hotz has already left Facebook.
While the reasons for his departure are unknown, Hotz is apparently pretty busy doing what he does best: hacking. The article states that he attended a hackathon this past weekend hosted by a new social networking startup called Backplane. Hotz helped to create an app during the event that allows its users to see where their Facebook friends might be on a map. Oddly enough, the app that Hotz worked on didn"t win the hackathon; he lost out to a group of high school students.
Hotz first gained fame in 2009 by creating jailbreak software for the iPhone which allowed the device to be used by other wireless carriers other than AT&T. Later he announced he was planning to hack into Sony"s Playstation 3 game console and released his first exploit in early 2010. In early 2011 he released the root keys for the PS3.
That got Sony to file a lawsuit against Hotz and others on several counts including computer fraud, copyright infringement and other charges. In April 2011 it was announced that Sony and Hotz had reached a settlement which, among other things, now forbids Hotz from doing any more hacking on any Sony product. If Hotz chooses to break the settlement he would be fined $10,000 by Sony for each violation. The total amount Hotz can be fined is fixed at $250,000.