According to the Daily Telegraph, the 25-year-old student from York used “considerable technical expertise" to repeatedly bypass security at the world's dominant social network.”
The York-based student, says the paper, faces five charges, including that he "made, adapted, supplied or offered to supply" a computer program to hack into a Facebook server.
In a court hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court late last week, the case was described as the first of its type involving Facebook.
“One Scotland Yard source told The Daily Telegraph that detectives were not aware of any hacking attempts to this extent on the site in Britain”, says the paper, which adds that the defendant does not actually have a Facebook profile.
The 25-year-old student is banned from using computers, iPhones or any devices capable of accessing the internet whilst he is released on bail. Infosecurity notes that he has not yet entered a plea, suggesting that the case may drag on for some time as investigations continue.
The student is alleged to have hacked into a Facebook puzzle server using downloaded software between April 27 and May 9 this year, as well as an email distribution server in late April.
The newspaper notes that Facebook says that the personal data of users of the social networking site was not compromised and that the investigation into the students's activities is being coordinated between Scotland Yard and the FBI.
According to the Softpedia newswire, meanwhile, the 25-year-old student was arrested by Metropolitan Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) officers in early June on suspicion of serious offences under the Computer Misuse Act.