What just happened? The Australian teenager who hacked into Apple's internal systems over a period of two years and downloaded 90GB of sensitive data has avoided conviction despite pleading guilty to his crimes.
As the now 19-year-old student is having his case heard in an Australian Children's Court, he can't be named under a local law that protects the identity of juveniles. He had earlier pleaded guilty to breaching Apple's systems between two periods, between June 2015 and November 2016, and in April 2017.
The boy copied 90GB of system data and authentication keys and was even able to access customer records. When Apple discovered what had happened, it contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who handed the case over to the Australian Federal Police. After a warrant was executed on the boy's family home, the stolen information was discovered on a hard drive in a folder called "Hacky hack hack." They also discovered devices with IPs matching those that broke into Apple's systems.
"Your offending is serious," the magistrate told the teenager. "It was sustained, sophisticated, and a successful attack on the security of a major multinational corporation."
The boy's lawyer said he had a fascination with Apple and a love of information technology, adding that he dreamed of working for the Cupertino firm one day.
The teen pleaded guilty to two charges back in August. No conviction was recorded, and he received an eight-month probation order. The court could have handed out jail terms of two years for one charge and 12 months for the other, writes Bloomberg.