Australian Teen Who Hacked into Apple's Servers Multiple Times Avoids Jail

[MacRumors]

A Melbourne schoolboy who hacked into Apple's corporate servers on multiple occasions over two years has avoided conviction, reports The Age.

The 19-year-old student, who can't be named for legal reasons as his case is being heard in an Australian Children's Court, earlier pleaded guilty to hacking into Apple's internal systems several times in 2015 and 2016.

The boy's hacking is said to have begun at the age of 16, and involved downloading 90 gigabytes of secure files and accessing customer accounts. His lawyer later told police that the teen "dreamed of" working for Apple.

The magistrate dealing with the case reportedly handed down an eight-month probation order, and said that no conviction would be recorded. The court also heard how the private school boy has since been accepted into university to study criminology and cyber safety.

That international investigation began when Apple detected the unauthorized access and blocked the source of the intrusions. The company notified the FBI, which passed on the information to the Australian Federal Police, resulting in a warrant being executed at the family home last year.

Prosecutors said the raid turned up a "litany of hacking files" in a folder on the boy's computer named "hacky hack hack," as well as devices with IP addresses that matched the source of the intrusions.

Following reports of the case, Apple released a statement to assure customers that at no point during the incident was personal data compromised.

Article Link: Australian Teen Who Hacked into Apple's Servers Multiple Times Avoids Jail

 

[Baumi]

This actually sounds quite sensible - at least if this was really nothing more than a kid taking his experimentation too far.

Better to get him to apply his talents in a legal job than to throw the book at him and ruin his life.

 

[ColdShadow]

19 years old is not a child.
what a weird country.

 

[rmoliv]

Should have gotten a life sentence.

 

[Grey Area]

19 years old is not a child.
what a weird country.

He is 19 now - the article says he hacked into the servers in 2015 and 2016, so that may all have happened when he was under 18.

 

[mingravity]

19 years old is not a child.
what a weird country.

when the crime was committed he was a minor.

 

[Sunday Ironfoot]

From the story:

...downloading 90 gigabytes of secure files and accessing customer accounts.

From Apple's press release:

...assure customers that at no point during the incident was personal data compromised.

So either Apple is lying here, or the boy download fake data from a honey pot?

 

[Grey Area]

Should have gotten a life sentence.

At least! Plus corporal and capital punishment - a classic Australian booting, followed by stoning with apples!

 

[gnasher729]

From the story:



From Apple's press release:



So either Apple is lying here, or the boy download fake data from a honey pot?

He could have downloaded 90 GB of encrypted customer data with no way to decrypt it. In that case, both the story and the press release are correct.

 

[MacWorld78]

I think Apple should hire this 19 year old student and make this person work for cyber security department, I’m sure this person will do good for all of us.

What I’m surprise that it take long time to download 90 gigabytes of secure files and accessing customer accounts.

Why Apple didn’t detect during at the time?

 

[seble]

9 to 5 Mac reports that he actually downloaded 1 terabyte of data, not 90 gigs. That’s quite a difference!

 

[ateslik]

Why Apple didn’t detect during at the time?

They were too busy updating the Mac Pro.



HAHAHAHA!!!!! just kidding!!!

 

[newtestleper]

At least! Plus corporal and capital punishment - a classic Australian booting, followed by stoning with apples!

I do not think you know what stoning means.

 

[elliotsen]

19 years old is not a child.
what a weird country.

The crime was committed at 16. 16 years old can make stupid mistakes.

 

[triton100]

This actually sounds quite sensible - at least if this was really nothing more than a kid taking his experimentation too far.

Better to get him to apply his talents in a legal job than to throw the book at him and ruin his life.

Yet if he were caught breaking into your house and stealing you’d want him to go to jail though ? And the difference being?

 

[69Mustang]

He could have downloaded 90 GB of encrypted customer data with no way to decrypt it. In that case, both the story and the press release are correct.

If he download encrypted data with no way to encrypt it, the story is still only half correct.

MR made the mistake of linking to the original article (before sentencing) from Aug. 16. instead of the Bloomberg article which actually detailed the sentencing.
Relevant excerpt: "A search of the teenager’s home recovered two Apple MacBook laptops and a hard drive that contained a folder labeled ‘Hacky Hack Hack Methods Exclude,’ which included 12 files on methods to infiltrate or bypass Apple’s security. Australian investigators recovered about a terabyte of data “sensitive both from a privacy and commercial point of view,” that had been copied from Apple’s systems, a prosecutor told an earlier hearing." - Bloomberg

Also unreported by MR: the kid broke in again after being detected and blocked by Apple.: "After being detected and blocked in November 2016, the defendant and the second person succeeded in briefly regaining access to Apple’s systems last year, according to the magistrate."

 

[jmeltzer]

At least! Plus corporal and capital punishment - a classic Australian booting, followed by stoning with apples!

I think he didn’t get jail time because he got just “the booting” instead. And he probably had to make an apology to Apple and pay a fine of 500 dollarydoos. Give the kid a break, I mean his toilet doesn’t even flush in the right direction down there.

 

[jthesssin]

Yet if he were caught breaking into your house and stealing you’d want him to go to jail though ? And the difference being?

Maybe because of an increasingly digital world, companies NEED to hire people with skills that get around their systems... No one is currently hiring door kickers or glass breakers are they??

 

[alphaod]

Too bad there is no caning in Australia.

 

[frumpy16]

So, the lesson for all of the minors in Australia is that you can flaunt whatever laws you want with zero real consequences. Seems like not the right message to send.

 

[davester]

Hacky hack hack

 

[KGB7]

So, the lesson for all of the minors in Australia is that you can flaunt whatever laws you want with zero real consequences. Seems like not the right message to send.

It’s better than murder.
[doublepost=1538046819][/doublepost]

19 years old is not a child.
what a weird country.

A 25 year old can still be a child. Not everyone matures at the same rate.

 

[Grey Area]

I think he didn’t get jail time because he got just “the booting” instead. And he probably had to make an apology to Apple and pay a fine of 500 dollarydoos. Give the kid a break, I mean his toilet doesn’t even flush in the right direction down there.

Very lenient, but alright, I admit I did not think of the toilets. That must be rough.

 

[Elijen]

"hacky hack hack"


What a legend!

 

[Techwatcher]

So, the lesson for all of the minors in Australia is that you can flaunt whatever laws you want with zero real consequences. Seems like not the right message to send.

Hacking is always a touchy subject, because while it can be used to do crimes it also usually shows how smart the person is. Just turn these people into White Hat hackers for your company with a job offer and the premise to not commit any more crimes. Simple. No point in imprisonment when a lot of these folks clearly have a rare skill set.