Apple Hacked By Australia’s Biggest Teen Fan: Report

A Melbourne teenager is facing criminal charges after he reportedly hacked Apple’s secure computer network multiple times.

The boy’s lawyer explained to a Children’s Court on Thursday that the teen did it all “because he was such a fan” of Apple, according to The Age.

The teen hacker reportedly attends private school and operated out of a suburban home, but he was not named publicly. According to The Age, Apple reported the teen to the FBI after detecting external access, and US authorities then alerted Australian Federal Police, which obtained a warrant to raid the teen’s family home last year. Investigators found evidence of his hacking escapades in a folder labelled “hacky hack hack”.

A prosecutor at the teen’s hearing reportedly stated that police discovered two Apple laptops in the teen’s home with serial numbers matching the devices that had accessed Apple’s network. A seized hard drive and phone also apparently had an IP address that matched the breach. The teen reportedly told others about his hacks on WhatsApp.

Officials believe the boy started hacking at age 16. He reportedly accessed customer accounts and downloaded 90GB of sensitive files.

The teen pleaded guilty to the charges.

Apple has not yet responded to a Gizmodo request for comment. At Thursday’s hearing, a prosecutor said Apple was “very sensitive about publicity,” according to The Age.

The newspaper reports that the teen told authorities he had “dreamed of” being an Apple employee. His lawyer argued to keep many case details private because the teen is well-known in the hacking community, and publicising identifying information could put him at risk.


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