Facebook Confirms Hiring Famous iPhone and Sony Hacker, GeoHot (George Hotz)

George Hotz, also known as “GeoHot” on the Internet, is now working at Facebook, the company confirms. Hotz is best known for both his iPhone hacking skills and as the person who jailbroke and reverse engineered Sony’s PlayStation 3, leading to legal battles. In April, Sony announced it reached a settlement with Hotz, with Hotz agreeing to a permanent injunction against publishing any further code.

The following month, Hotz was hired at Facebook.

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Reportedly, Hotz began work at Facebook as a software engineer in May 2011 and his first day was May 9.  A Facebook spokesperson has confirmed the hire but did not provide any other details regarding Hotz’ position or duties.

The news was reported by TechUnwrapped and others over the weekend, citing an interview with Chronic-Dev Team member Joshua Hill (aka “P0sixninja on Twitter). The Chronic-Dev Team, for those unaware, is a group of developers who work to release software for jailbreaking iPhones and other iOS devices.

In a video interview (see embed below), Hill discussed the upcoming jailbreakers’ convention known as MyGreatFest, During the chat, Hill also mentioned that he recently challenged Hotz to find an exploit for the iPad 2, but Hotz turned him down due to his current employment at Facebook, as well as his desire to escape the limelight after his legal troubles with Sony.

Additional confirmation came from Gabe Rivera, founder of the tech news aggregator Techmeme. He did a little sleuthing of his own and discovered that Hotz had announced his employment at Facebook via his Facebook profile. According to this post (viewable by Hotz’ Facebook friends and network only), he began in May and revealed the news to friends in June.

Facebook has yet to officially confirm Hotz’ role with the company, only his hire, but speculation has it that he may be involved with Facebook’s mobile efforts, specifically its upcoming iPad app. The New York Times reported earlier this month that the iPad app, in development for nearly a year, may only be weeks away from release.

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