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Facebook hires George Hotz, famed PlayStation 3 hacker known as Geohot

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Facebook has hired George Hotz, better known in hacker circles as Geohot, who was famously sued by Sony for breaking through the operating system on the PlayStation 3 video game console.

A Facebook spokeswoman, who declined to be named, said in an email to the Technology blog that ‘George is employed at Facebook,’ confirming earlier reports of the hiring from the website TechUnwrapped.

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Hotz shared his PlayStation 3 breaches with others on the Web looking to run their own software on the PS3 as if it were a standard computer -- something the U.S. Air Force did at one point. Hotz is also known for hacks of the Apple iPhone’s iOS.

In April, Hotz settled with Sony. The consumer electronics giant’s case had accused the now-21-year-old hacker of violating federal law by publishing details online on how to circumvent the PlayStation 3’s software, which Sony said could ‘allow the playing of pirated video games.’

Facebook declined to say what role Hotz would have at the world’s largest social network.

The Washington Post reported there was speculation that he’s helping build a Facebook iPad app. It would also make sense that Hotz could be hired, in part, to test how hackable and spamable Facebook’s social networking site is, in an effort to improve security.

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Facebook sells 225,000 shares to GSV Capital Corp.

-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

twitter.com/nateog

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