On Friday, the defendant in an ongoing case involving hacking into and leaking details from Nintendo's servers plead guilty to his charges. 21-year old Ryan Hernandez, otherwise known as RyanRocks, was brought up on charges of illegally obtaining information from Nintendo's servers, and for possession of child pornography. Originally, Hernandez's first offense was back in 2016--when he was still a minor at the time--where he managed to use a phishing technique in order to get ahold of a Nintendo employee's credentials to download pre-release promotional information about the Nintendo Switch, and then distribute it to the public.

His actions were reported to the FBI, who then visited Hernandez in the following year, informing him that he needed to stop the malicious and illegal behavior. Hernandez promised that he wouldn't continue to do such things, but the warnings were quickly disregarded, as in 2018, he hacked directly into Nintendo servers, once again obtaining information that he broadcast to others across the internet, even bragging publically about his exploits. In the middle of 2019, the FBI once again visited Hernandez, seizing technology involved in the hack, along with hard drives and "circumvention devices used to access pirated video games and software". It was there that not only did the FBI find the ill-gotten Nintendo files, but also hundreds of child pornography-related media.

Nevertheless, from at least June 2018 to June 2019, HERNANDEZ returned to his malicious activities, hacking into multiple Nintendo servers and stealing confidential information about various popular video games, gaming consoles, and developer tools. HERNANDEZ boasted about his hacking exploits on several online and social media platforms, such as Twitter and Discord, and leaked some of the stolen information to others. HERNANDEZ further operated an online chat forum called “Ryan’s Underground Hangout” in which he and others discussed Nintendo products and shared information about possible Nintendo network vulnerabilities, and on which he shared some of the confidential information he had stolen.

The maximum sentence for illegally hacking is only 5 years in prison, while possession of child pornography is a far greater issue, and has a maximum prison time of 20 years. Due to Hernandez's guilty plea, the lawyers involved with the case have recommended a sentence of 3 years, though this could be altered by the judge at the time of sentencing, which will take place on April 21, 2020. Additional stipulations to the case also include Hernandez agreeing to pay $259,323 in damages to Nintendo, and being forced to register as a sex offender, once he is free from prison.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, prosecutors and defense attorneys, will recommend three years in prison. However, the ultimate sentence is up to the judge and could be up to the statutory maximums of 5 years in prison for computer fraud and abuse, and 20 years in prison for possession of child pornography.

HERNANDEZ has agreed to pay $259,323 in restitution to Nintendo for the remediation costs caused by his conduct. Under the terms of the plea agreement, HERNANDEZ also will be required to register as a sex offender following his conviction.

The case was investigated by the FBI, Seattle Cyber Task Force. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Steven Masada.

Source

 

[carizard]

man, american laws are really messed up. 5 years for hacking and stealing private information, but 20 years for possessing/viewing some pictures?

Child porn not any old pictures

 

[sarkwalvein]

As for the idea of the FBI planting CP, your actual conspiracy makes no sense.

You have to entertain the idea, otherwise its no fun to wear a tinfoil hat.

Imagine dismissing an act of carrying CP as "some pictures," then thinking American law is what's messed up.

Totally agree with this, even if I might sound tactless due to my comment just above.

 

[The Catboy]

You have to entertain the idea, otherwise its no fun to wear a tinfoil hat.

Totally agree with this, even if I might sound tactless due to my comment just above.

I am a succubus, your human need to wear a tinfoil hat is complicated by the fact that I have horns. As such, I can't wear a tinfoil hat. Also, I am just grumpy because I haven't gotten attention.

 

[conradcervantes]

Get fucked, pederast.

 

[MaxiBash]

Ohh... Ryan.
I was with him in a Discord server at some point, but not a "hangout" place, it sounds familiar to that other Pokémon related hack.

Also, child porn? We knew on the server he did shady stuff, but I was never told he was a sex offender. He would just leak SDKs once in a while and post them there, but when his door was raided by the FBI in 2019, we deleted all links and kicked him off the server.

 

[Reecey]

I always knew this guy was a wrongun! He was the twat that ruined Mario Kart 8 online on the wiiu and bragged about it I’m so pleased that gbatemp banned his ass. He will now serve a higher purpose in life being his pad mates bitch!!

 

[leon315]

Can't people stop being stupid and do illegal things?

Do you know pirate are illegal too, but they mostly like won't stop pirating.

 

[smf]

They confiscated his switches, one of which looks like a launch model. Someone should hire him. Like in the movie catch me if you can...

He obviously needs help.

 

[TheZander]

Okay, but what the hell is gbagemp?

Lot of stuff happens people incriminate themselves on a daily basis.

 

[Ericzander]

Wouldn't be surprised if the CP was just 2D stuff, given how ridiculous the laws have become.

Regardless, though he obviously deserved to get slapped down for hacking, especially after a warning from the FBI (I doubt most people get a warning, though I suppose it's different because he was underage at the time), it seems pretty ridiculous that possession of that pornographic content could get him 20 years and having to register as a sex offender (basically ruins your life) but hacking is only 5 years.
The former doesn't hurt anyone (just viewing, not making and distributing or even buying - the latter is obviously hurting/encouraging people), like it or not, but the former is affecting other people. Plus so many cases often seem to have "also they had CP" tacked on the end. Sometimes it seems too convenient, but it's not like we'll ever know for sure, so I guess we just have to take the court's word for it.

It just seems like another one of those punishments that's disproportionate to the crime. If he was a child rapist who was making his own content? Yeah, 20 years sounds like a good minimum.

Anyway, he clearly deserves punishment. Just not so sure that the non-hacking charge is entirely fair for multiple reasons. The hacking one? Yeah, fuck him.
Sounds like a dumbass hacker if he didn't have encryption and failsafes to prevent being caught, though.

At first I thought this was the worst possible way anyone could justify people who look at CP until I read this:

man, american laws are really messed up. 5 years for hacking and stealing private information, but 20 years for possessing/viewing some pictures?

What the hell guys? This is disgusting and extremely disturbing logic. If you think looking at "some pictures" is a victimless crime then you need to reevaluate your thoughts because this isn't something that people should even have to argue about.

 

[chrisrlink]

like i kept saying (If i was him minus the CP) i'd be smug and say to the lawyers "good luck squeezing money out of me" SSI cant be used to pay lawsuits i may lose it but still also if this CP is not real IE hentai/toon porn he can combat it as some have a got it dismissed as laws like that only protect real children (in the US at least EU and other places includes hentai as an offence if underage heck don't live in the philipines as all Porn is jailable of age or not)

 

[Mollycule]

Seems like a real nasty piece of work, another one bites the dust.

I'm gonna say this now, people know right from wrong, but there are a million ways to justify something for yourself, and as you go on in life doing this, one day you wake up and realize you have a full blown delusional complex.

This is why Psychedelics like LSD and Psilocybin should be legal, because one trip has the capacity to break any self induced delusion, by literally putting all your bad choices on a table, spread out and documented for you to assess.

Most will come out of this either enlightened and shamed by their ways, or be lost in the torment of the things that cannot be undone.

 

[nero99]

leaking shit? i'd rather him take down N's entire network for all the bullshit they've done protecting their ip

I really hope you’re joking. So you’re telling me that if you owned a big name video game company, and people were stealing all your stuff from your servers, you would be just fine with that? You wouldn’t pursue any legal action? You wouldn’t send out C&Ds to people making free copies of your games for the internet to use (talking about fan made stuff)? You’d just let it all slide?

 

[ignare]

He'll be poor and naked on the streets now. Damn.

 

[PatrickD85]

Well some people just make crappy life decisions it seems.
Ah well own up to whatever you do ...

 

[GhostLatte]

He’s going to need a barrel of Vaseline.

 

[godreborn]

Fuck Ryan.

Hope that the judge gives him the maximum sentence for both.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


Pretty sure the death penalty in the US only exists for murder.

treason as well. I think that treason is the only federal crime punishable by death.

 

[the_randomizer]

man, american laws are really messed up. 5 years for hacking and stealing private information, but 20 years for possessing/viewing some pictures?

That's the stupidest shit I ever heard, do you even realize how bad and disgusting that shit is? What the hell is wrong with you? Pretty tough words coming from someone who lives in a country with a corrupt government.

 

[Pluupy]

This is why Psychedelics like LSD and Psilocybin should be legal, because one trip has the capacity to break any self induced delusion, by literally putting all your bad choices on a table, spread out and documented for you to assess.

I want to have faith in humanity that someone isn't this stupid to actually think this.

 

[the_randomizer]

I want to believe someone isn't this stupid.

Resorting to drugs is the coward's way out, get some real help for problems.