Apple says no customer data compromised following hack by Australian teen

Apple has issued a statement reassuring customers that no sensitive data was compromised after an Australian teenager pleaded guilty to hacking into the tech giants main computer network, accessing customer accounts and downloading internal files.

The 16 year old from Melbourne apparently accessed Apples mainframe systems multiple times over the course of a year, all from his suburban home, according to statements made by his lawyer in court. All together, he downloaded around 90gb of secure files and accessed customer accounts without exposing his identity.

When Apple became aware of the intrusion, it contacted the FBI, who then referred the matter to the Australian Federal Police (AFP). An AFP raid carried out on the boys family home produced two laptops, a mobile phone and a hard drive that all matched digital records reported by Apple. The sensitive documents were reportedly saved in a golder called “hacky hack hack”.

Further analysis by computer security experts found that the schoolboy has successfully accessed authorised keys during his multiple hacks. These grant log-in access to users, and are thought to be extremely secure. The teen had boasted about his hacks on WhatsApp, and according to his lawyer, his client had become so well known in the international hacking community that mentioning the case in detail could expose him to risk.

“We…want to assure our customers that at no point during this incident was their personal data compromised,” said an Apple spokesperson, who added that the firms information security teams had “discovered the unauthorised access, contained it, and reported the incident to law enforcement.”