16-year-old hacks Apple and steal 90GB of secure files

Court documents reveal that a 16-year-old hacker from Australia allegedly broke into tech giant Apple's computer systems and may have downloaded internal files.

The Age reports that the teen's lawyer asked that his named be concealed because he's become so famous in the hacking world that releasing his name would put him at risk.

A schoolboy from Melbourne is facing criminal charges for hacking into Apple's network and downloading private user data multiple times over the past year, per The Children's Court on Thursday.

An Australian teenager managed to hack Apple, steal 90 gigabytes of secure files, and access customer accounts, a court has heard, according to The Age.

He downloaded secure files and accessed customer accounts, using instructions stored on his Apple laptops, seized in a raid on his suburban home, under a folder named "hacky hack hack".

The Age said police raided the boy's home previous year and found hacking files and instructions saved in a folder called "hacky hack hack".

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Serial numbers of devices, including two Apple laptops used to hack into Apple's network, had subsequently been traced as were Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, said a prosecutor quoted by The Age. But Apple stated in an email to The Guardian that the student did not "compromise" personal data. "A mobile phone and hard drive were also seized and the IP address ... matched the intrusions into the organisation". When Apple noticed the intrusion, the company contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which in turn contacted Australian authorities.

"At Apple, we vigilantly protect our networks and have dedicated teams of information security professionals that work to detect and respond to threats", the company said in its email to The Guardian. The Age also reports that the unnamed teen from Melbourne told police he loved Apple and dreamed of working there.

"In this case, our teams discovered the unauthorised access, contained it, and reported the incident to law enforcement". He is said to be well-known in the worldwide hacking community.

"Young people often make mistakes when they are exploring and rule-breaking especially online - including boasting about their exploits".

The boy's name could not be made public because he was a juvenile offender.