A Nintendo hacker who stole information from a Nintendo employee and leaked information about the Switch has now been sentenced to three years in prison. 21 year old Ryan Hernandez of Palmdale, California will be serving prison time for his “computer hacking scheme” against Nintendo, as well as for possessing child pornography.
Ryan Hernandez was a minor when he was first contacted by the FBI in 2016. At the time, Hernandez had successfully stolen a Nintendo employee’s information with a phishing scheme, and then leaked details about the Switch console before it was released. Hernandez stated to the FBI that he would stop this behavior, but he apparently didn’t. Hernandez hacked Nintendo again in the time period between June 2018 and June 2019, stealing the company’s information and reportedly bragging about it.
The FBI searched Hernandez’s home in June 2019 and reportedly found thousands of stolen Nintendo files, along with over 1,000 child pornography videos and images, hidden in a folder labeled “Bad Stuff.” Hernandez was prosecuted for both his “computer hacking scheme” against Nintendo as well as for the inappropriate and illegal images he had on his digital devices.
Once Hernandez has served his three years in prison, he will have to pay $259,323 to Nintendo for his attacks against the company. Furthermore, Hernandez’s release from prison will be supervised for seven years, and because he possessed child pornography, he will have to register as a sex offender.
Hernandez plead guilty to the charges this past January, and he was originally going to be sentenced in April. However, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic saw Hernandez’s sentencing delayed for months.
Video game company hacks happen on a semi-regular basis, with one of the most significant recent examples being the big Capcom hack. Hackers stole Capcom’s upcoming video game plans as well as personal employee information, which it threatened to release to the public if the company didn’t pay a ransom. Capcom didn’t give in to the demands, and so the hackers released the info, revealing a slew of upcoming Capcom projects in the process.
Another recent hack targeted the children’s game Animal Jam. The Animal Jam hack was rather significant, with 46 million records compromised. Luckily, only 0.02% of the stolen Animal Jam records contained personal information, meaning that most of those impacted were unlikely to be exploited or targeted by any hacking groups.
In any case, online security will continue to be a major issue moving forward, especially as everything becomes increasingly digital, and it will be interesting to see if cybercrimes start carrying heftier consequences.
Photo by Matthew Hamilton on Unsplash
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