16-year-old Australian hacks Apple's corporate network; user accounts data accessed
What's the story
An Australian schoolboy who "dreamed" of working for Apple hacked the firm's computer systems, Australian media has reported, although the tech giant said today no customer data was compromised. The Children's Court of Victoria was told the teenager broke into Apple's mainframe (a large, powerful data processing system) from his home in the suburbs of Melbourne and downloaded 90GB of secure files. Here's more.
Hacky Hack Hack
Police raided the boy's home last year
The Age said police raided the boy's home last year and found hacking files and instructions saved in a folder called "hacky hack hack". "Two Apple laptops were seized and the serial numbers matched the serial numbers of the devices which accessed the internal systems," a prosecutor was reported as saying. A mobile phone and a hard drive were also seized, he added.
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The teen had dreamed of working for 'Apple'
The boy, then aged 16, accessed Apple's system multiple times over a year as he was a fan of the tech company and had "dreamed of" working for the US firm, the newspaper said, citing his lawyer.
Statement
Customers' personal data never compromised, says Apple
Apple said in a statement today that its teams "discovered the unauthorized access, contained it, and reported the incident to law enforcement". The firm, which earlier this month became the first private-sector company to surpass $1 trillion in market value, said it wanted to assure its customers that "at no point during this incident was their personal data compromised".
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The teen has pleaded guilty
An international investigation was launched involving the FBI and the Australian Federal Police. The federal police said it could not comment on the case. The teen has pleaded guilty and the case is due to return to court for his sentencing next month.