In an announcement by the US Department of Justice, a man from California has pled guilty for hacking into multiple Nintendo servers. The man allegedly hacked into Nintendo servers to steal confidential information of the company, including information about the Nintendo Switch. He stole the information about the Switch months before its announcement.
Ryan Hernandez aged 21 and one of his companion successfully phished a Nintendo employee in 2016. He got access to the company’s server and stole important information, according to the Department of Justice. The FBI got in touch with the man’s parents in October 2017. The law enforcers asked them to stop him from hacking. At that time Hernandez verified that he understands the consequences if he hacked again.
Cut to 2019, the 21-year old allegedly continued to hack the servers from June 2018 to June 2019 to illegally gain access to the confidential corporate information of the company. The man broke into “multiple Nintendo servers” to gain more info.
After gaining the information, Hernandez made the mistake of boasting about his hacking on social media platforms. He talked about his hacking on his Twitter handle and his Discord channel. He also shared the information in his chat forum called “Ryan’s Underground Hangout”. In this forum, he gave the information about Nintendo products that he gained to other individuals. He also shared info about the vulnerabilities in Nintendo’s network, according to the DOJ.
Based on the hacking details, the FBI conducted a raid into the alleged’s house and found thousands of confidential Nintendo files containing information about the company. Upon further search, the FBI also found possession of child pornography.
The Penalty
The Department of Justice said that the man has agreed to pay a lump-sum amount of $259,323 (Rs.1,85,41,335) to Nintendo as part of a plea agreement. However, he won’t be getting away just by paying the said amount. According to the DOJ, the man can be in prison for up to five years for hacking, and for the possession of child pornography, he could serve up to 20 years.
Well, that’s what you get for messing with big companies and possessing unethical content.
