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

 

[Viri]

yeah cuz i am sure the FBI and Nintendo are totally above planting some CP on you to make sure they ruin your life

Or, maybe they both were just creeps? The FBI seemed surprising lax to let him go the first time he was caught, which is shocking.

 

[Deleted member 388531]

CP again?
Fuck, this is cruel all over again.

 

[The Catboy]

IIRC, that was the same jerk who decided to throw a bunch of transphobic comments at me. I could be mixing him up with someone else though.
Either way, glad he's behind bars now.

 

[HarveyHouston]

Well, he asked for it, really. He made his presence known by accessing the servers directly. Big mistake.

 

[hippy dave]

Eh...

 

[carizard]

This guy kinda deserved it but...
Nintendo can you fucking stop suing people!?

Can people stop using phishing attacks and hacking into nintendo and threatening to leak massive amounts of data

He was probably in the same mentality as Team Overfl0w who were nothing more than a bunch of cockteasing wannabes

Failoverflow tease a lot more than they release but they do release stuff sometimes

 

[Phenj]

lol the guy that tried to steal zelda at E3

 

[Bladexdsl]

he better be more worried about possessing child pornography than hacking nintendo

 

[Bimmel]

When he out of prison judge should make him clean nintendo hq toilets and polish Miyamotos shoes for a year

Yes, being a Pikmin sure will teach him a lesson!

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

Whoops

 

[Cubuss]

 

[DANTENDO]

Yes, being a Pikmin sure will teach him a lesson!

If it was my way he'd be fkin executed

 

[Ev1l0rd]

Fuck Ryan.

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

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

If it was my way he'd be fkin executed

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

 

[Essasetic]

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

Even then, it's only in certain states. Washington (which I assume is where the charges were filed) abolished the death penalty in 1975.

 

[banjo2]

I wonder how would Nintendo prison look like?

It has Captain Falcon, he's in for 30 years, I'm sure you'll never guess what he did wrong...

 

[Joom]

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

And even there it's not a deterrent. I've never believed in the death penalty because it doesn't allow rehabilitation for most. As much as I dislike this little turdball, he's gonna be on the inside for a very long time, so here's hoping he reforms. Maybe being taken advantage of by someone more powerful than he is will grant him empathy toward the victimhood of the unwilling that he facilitated.

 

[RedBlueGreen]

I guess she should've been behind 7 proxies.

 

[GbaNober]

Lolicon Arrested.

 

[Subtle Demise]

How do we really know the FBI didn't plant the CP to make it seem like a bigger bust? A federal agent got caught sniffing a 3 year old's panties, it wouldn't shock me too much anymore.

 

[TankedThomas]

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.