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Teen Hacked into Apple's Secure Computer Network
Sydney: A Melbourne private schoolboy who repeatedly broke into Apple’s secure computer systems is facing criminal charges after the technology giant called in the FBI. Apple Inc said on Friday no customer data was compromised after Australian media reported a teenager had pleaded guilty to hacking into its main computer network, downloading internal files and accessing customer accounts.
The boy, 16, from the southern city of Melbourne, broke into the US computer giant's mainframe from his suburban home many times over a year, The Age newspaper reported, citing statements by the teenager's lawyer in court.
The teen, who cannot be named for legal reasons, broke into Apple’s mainframe from his suburban home on multiple occasions over a year because he was such a fan of the company, according to his lawyer. He later told police he had “dreamed of” working for Apple.
Apple contacted the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation when it became aware of the intrusion, The Age said, quoting statements made in court. The FBI then referred the matter to the Australian Federal Police (AFP).
The teen downloaded 90 gigabytes of secure files and accessed customer accounts without exposing his identity, the paper said.
The report said an AFP raid on the boy's family home produced two laptops, a mobile phone and a hard drive that matched the intrusion reported by Apple.
The sensitive documents were saved in a folder called "hacky hack hack", the report said. It said the boy had boasted about his activities on the mobile messaging service WhatsApp.
An Apple spokesman said the company's information security personnel "discovered the unauthorized access, contained it, and reported the incident to law enforcement" without commenting further on the specifics of the case.
The Children’s Court heard on Thursday (16-08-2018) that he had downloaded 90gb of secure files and accessed customer accounts. The teen’s defense lawyer said his client had become so well known in the international hacking community that even mentioning the case in detail could expose him to risk.
The Crown prosecutor also acknowledged that Apple was “very sensitive about publicity”.
“Two Apple laptops were seized and the serial numbers matched the serial numbers of the devices which accessed the internal systems,” a prosecutor said.
“A mobile phone and hard drive were also seized and the IP address matched the intrusions into the organization.
“The purpose was to connect remotely to the company’s internal systems.” Further analysis found that the schoolboy successfully accessed “authorized keys” as part of his offending.
Authorized keys grant log-in access to users and are said to be extremely secure. He then used WhatsApp to communicate his offending to others. The ongoing access continued until Apple eventually detected his presence and he was blocked.
ormal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text sizeThe teen, who cannot be named for legal reasons, broke into Apple’s mainframe from his suburban home on multiple occasions over a year because he was such a fan of the company, according to his lawyer.
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