Australian teen receives 8 months probation for hacking Apple's corporate network

An Australian teen who gained unauthorized access to Apple's corporate network has been sentenced to eight months probation for his crimes, which included the collection of about one terabyte of sensitive data gleaned from company servers.

As scheduled, the Melbourne teen, who has not been named because he was a minor at the time of the crime, received sentencing on Thursday.

The now adult defendant faced two charges related to hacking, one carrying a maximum sentence of two years in custody and another carrying a maximum sentence of one year. He entered a guilty plea in August.

During the proceedings, a magistrate told the Children's Court that the offenses carried out by the defendant were "serious, sustained and sophisticated," reports Bloomberg.

Over the course of two years, the defendant conducted a series of attacks on Apple's internal systems, using highly protected "authorized keys" and software to remotely access offsite servers. Apple security personnel ultimately discovered the intrusion and notified the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, which handed the case over to the Australian Federal Police.

A raid of the boy's suburban home last year yielded two Apple laptops, a mobile phone and a hard drive associated with the hack. In all, nearly one terabyte of secure files and customer data was stolen, some of which landed in a file named "hacky hack hack."

Apple in a statement said no customer information was compromised due to the attack.

In past reports, the teen was described as a fan of Apple who dreamed of one day working for the company.

16 Comments

claire1 510 comments · 6 Years

About 6 years ago

Good. I mean he didn't actually take anything.

ihatescreennames 1971 comments · 19 Years

AppleInsider said:

In past reports, the teen was described as a fan of Apple who dreamed of one day working for the company.

Good luck with that. I think he may have been a little misguided in how to go about being hired.

sflocal 6133 comments · 16 Years

ihatescreennames said:

AppleInsider said:

In past reports, the teen was described as a fan of Apple who dreamed of one day working for the company.

Good luck with that. I think he may have been a little misguided in how to go about being hired.

I wouldn't be surprised if this guy (kid) gets an offer down the road. What better way to have hackers working for Apple versus against Apple right? If not, he now has street cred so maybe he'll be picked up by some security firm.

anton zuykov 1056 comments · 9 Years

sflocal said:

ihatescreennames said:

AppleInsider said:

In past reports, the teen was described as a fan of Apple who dreamed of one day working for the company.

Good luck with that. I think he may have been a little misguided in how to go about being hired.

I wouldn't be surprised if this guy (kid) gets an offer down the road. What better way to have hackers working for Apple versus against Apple right? If not, he now has street cred so maybe he'll be picked up by some security firm.

Or by some grey/black hat group. I am on the fence about Apple hiring him. But at the same time, the guy indeed probably tried showing off his skill, rather than doing real damage.

Soli 9981 comments · 9 Years

For his age and the specific crime I think that's fair, but I'd also like to have rad about ways to steering him onto a path that will help stop cyber crime by find holes in systems that can then he hardened.