Melbourne teenager pleads guilty to hacking Apple

  • 17/08/2018

An Australian teenager has pleaded guilty to hacking into Apple's main computer and stealing files.

The 16-year-old - who hasn't been named for legal reasons - claims he's a big fan of the California-based tech giant, and says that's what motivated him into hacking the company's files, The Age newspaper reports

Apple's mainframe was hacked into from the Melbourne teen's suburban home multiple times over the space of one year, according to statements made by the boy's lawyer in court. 

The iPhone-maker contacted the FBI in the US after becoming aware that up to 90 gigabytes of secure files and customer accounts had been accessed without the teenager's identity being revealed. 

The Australian Federal Police were then informed of the incident by the FBI, resulting in a police raid on the boy's family home, the newspaper reports. 

The raid recovered two laptops, a mobile phone and a hard drive, which matched the intrusion reported by Apple, according to statements made in court. 

The 16-year-old had saved the files he hacked in a folder labelled "hacky hack hack", and it's been reported he boasted about his activities on WhatsApp. 

He is due to be sentenced next month. 

Newshub.