An Australian teenager has pled guilty to criminal hacking charges for repeatedly breaking into Apple’s secure computer systems, The Age reports. The intrusions, which were discovered by Apple’s internal security teams and reported to the FBI and Australian authorities, saw the teen breaking into Apple’s mainframe from his home in suburban Melbourne on multiple occasions over the course of a year.
According to his lawyer, the teen engaged in hacking Apple’s systems because he “was such a fan of the company” and that he had told police that he had “dreamed of working for Apple.” The teen had downloaded 90 GB of secure files and accessed various customer accounts over the course of his unauthorized access and had developed VPN tunnels and other systems to attempt to hide his identity, however, Apple was able to trace the source of the intrusions by logging the serial numbers from the MacBooks he was using, which were also matched up by authorities the the laptops were seized, along with a mobile phone and hard drive. The teen’s method of accessing Apple’s systems reportedly “worked flawlessly” until the intrusions were discovered by Apple and the teen was caught.
The teen’s guilty plea has been acknowledged, however sentencing has been put off until next month due to the complexities involved in the case. [via MacRumors]
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