Teenage boy hacked into apple's network

Apple hack teen pleads guilty

August 17, 2018 9:37 AM

The boy hacked Apple because he was a fan of the firm, reports from the court case say

A teenage boy from Australia has pleaded guilty to hacking into Apple's network and downloading internal files, according to reports.

The 16-year-old accessed 90 gigabytes worth of files, breaking into the system many times over the course of a year from his suburban home in Melbourne, reports The Age newspaper.

It says he stored the documents in a folder called 'hacky hack hack'.

Apple insists that no customer data was compromised.

But The Age reports that the boy had accessed customer accounts.

In a statement to the BBC, Apple said: "We vigilantly protect our networks and have dedicated teams of information security professionals that work to detect and respond to threats.

"In this case, our teams discovered the unauthorised access, contained it, and reported the incident to law enforcement.

"We regard the data security of our users as one of our greatest responsibilities and want to assure our customers that at no point during this incident was their personal data compromised."

Well-known hacker

According to statements made in court, the smartphone giant contacted the FBI when it became aware of the intrusion, and the matter was referred to the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

An AFP raid on the boy's home revealed two laptops with serial numbers matching those of devices which had accessed the system. Police also seized a mobile phone and a hard drive.

According to The Age, the teen had boasted about his activities in WhatsApp messages. It reports that he had hacked into the firm because he was a huge fan and dreamed of working there.

His defence lawyer said that he had become very well-known in the international hacking community.

The boy's name has not been made public for legal reasons. He is due to be sentenced on 20 September.

BBC © 2018

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Motorola phone imitate iPhone X brazen

Motorola phone 'brazen copy' of iPhone X

Spot the difference: the P30 and iPhone X

Smartphone brand Motorola has been criticised for revealing a "shameless" copy of the iPhone X as its new model.

Many phone-makers have copied the look of the iPhone X, which has a smaller bezel around the screen and a "notch" at the top that houses a camera.

However, reviewers said the new Motorola P30 was a "brazen" and "egregious" rip-off of Apple's flagship device.

Lenovo, which owns the Motorola brand, has not yet responded to the criticism.

Motorola was a pioneer in the mobile phone industry, but its sales fell in the smartphone era and its handset division was sold to Google in 2012.

The division was then sold to Chinese computer firm Lenovo in 2014, where it has continued to produce smartphones running the Android operating system.

Both phones feature a 'notch' at the top of the screen

Commenting on the similarity between the Motorola P30 and the iPhone X, technology blogger Marques Brownless call it the "most shameless rip yet".

News site Mashable said Motorola "even went so far as to adorn the screen with a wallpaper that's a dead ringer for Apple's default wallpaper".

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News and reviews site Technobuffalo said the design was an "egregious clone" that was "nearly impossible to distinguish" from the iPhone X.

Tech news site The Verge pointed out that Google's image recognition algorithms described photos of the P30 as "iPhone".

"The growing number of identikit smartphone designs is a depressing trend and it's little wonder consumer apathy is on the rise and replacement rates are slowing," said analyst Ben Wood from the CCS Insight consultancy.

"One starts to wonder whether Jony Ive's design group at Apple has become the de facto owner for the reference design for all high-end smartphones.

"Phone makers need to innovate and find ways to differentiate if they want to maintain consumer desire to upgrade their phones," he told the BBC.

On Thursday, Lenovo posted an operating profit for the first quarter - after making a loss the previous year.

Bloomberg attributed the rise to an increase in sales, but also cost-cutting measures in its mobile division.

Lenovo plans to sell the Motorola P30 in China, but has not announced its availability in other countries. The device is expected to cost about $350 (£275) - less than half the price of Apple's flagship device.

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