‘HACKY HACK HACK’

Australian Teen Pleads Guilty to Repeatedly Hacking Apple’s Network: Report

His lawyer reportedly said he hacked the tech giant because he was “such a fan of the company.”

An Australian teen has pleaded guilty to repeatedly hacking into Apple’s secure computer systems for a year, The Age reports. The private-school student—who was 16 at the time—allegedly broke into the tech giant’s mainframe from his suburban Melbourne home and “downloaded 90gb of secure files and accessed customer accounts.” After Apple discovered that someone was logging into the network unauthorized, the company blocked the user and contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which then contacted the Australian Federal Police. The hacker, who could not be named in court because he was “so well known” in the hacking community, developed “computerized tunnels and online bypassing systems” that kept him anonymous and used “authorized keys” to log in undetected. He would then talk about the activity with others via WhatsApp, but was caught when authorities raided his home, finding hacking files and instructions, all kept in a computer folder called “hacky hack hack.” The teen, who reportedly told police he “dreamed of” working for Apple, hacked the company’s mainframe because he was “such a fan of the company,” his defense attorney said in court.