Teen Hacks Apple, Has Excellent Folder Name

Australian 16-year-old saved stolen files in one called 'hacky hack hack'
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 17, 2018 6:19 AM CDT
Teen Hacks Apple, Has Excellent Folder Name
An Australian teen apparently tried to impress Apple with his computer skills.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

A 16-year-old kid in Australia managed to hack into Apple's computer systems multiple times over the course of a year and steal secure data, and the best part of the story is the name of the folder in which he saved instructions and stolen files on his laptop: "hacky hack hack." The Age also reports that the unnamed teen from Melbourne told police he loved Apple and dreamed of working there. It's not clear exactly what he stole or how he got into what the Verge calls Apple's "backend network," but he did it all from his parents' home in Melbourne using some kind of software. He also allegedly shared the stolen info with his friends on WhatsApp. Apple detected the breach and told the FBI, which informed the Australian Federal Police, making it an international case.

"Two Apple laptops were seized and the serial numbers matched the serial numbers of the devices which accessed the internal systems," says an Australian prosecutor. Authorities say he stole about 90GB of "secure files" and accessed customer accounts after obtaining users' authorized keys, or log-in access, reports the Guardian. "In this case, our teams discovered the unauthorized access, contained it, and reported the incident to law enforcement," says a statement from Apple. The teen has pleaded guilty and will be sentenced next month. (Lisa Jobs recalls asking her dad about a certain, famous computer.)

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