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

 

[ZachyCatGames]

tfw accessing the dev unit servers is super easy and isn’t something super crazy.
we ignore the fact that there’s nothing interesting on most of them to my knowledge

 

[Ericzander]

I know all of this is sort of irrelevant to the post but I keep reading "Childporn this" "FBI that" so uh... I'll just play devil's advocate here just because I am curious what you guys will say.
Hacking should be a bigger crime than child pornography possession.

"Yes officer, this post right here."

If only cognitive dissonance was a crime...

 

[Hells Malice]

I know all of this is sort of irrelevant to the post but I keep reading "Childporn this" "FBI that" so uh... I'll just play devil's advocate here just because I am curious what you guys will say.
Hacking should be a bigger crime than child pornography possession.

Hacking has the potential to:

- Ruin jobs. So this could destroy a company's promotional campaign if information that was meant to be released was widespread so it could as well ruin a company's "surprise", A.K.A. product. This product could actually have been what the entire business was relying on and it was just completely destroyed because the information about it was leaked. Furthermore, the information could have been leaked to competing businesses, which is like "Tail-gating" in investor terms... If you know what that is you should know.

- Ruin lives, families and perhaps relationships. Many people have entire families that rely on the job they potentially just lost because someone wanted to hack.


Yeah, sure all of these not as often have the worst case scenario happen, but how can you tell me that some little 5 year old who got pictures taken of her, probably forgot the entire experience, and was never heard of again in which she probably didn't even understand what was happening is WORSE than ruining good, honest people's lives?
I mean WORSE like... But 20 extra years in prison.

In fact, how about this.
What if the little 5 year old was raped, beaten and killed....
Sure that is HORRIBLE...

But how is that WORSE than ruining loads of families lives (Multiple little 5 year olds, a mom and a dad along with their private education probably.), jobs, dreams and aspirations just because one little girl died? ... But in this case, one little girl was "Photographed".

LOL Child pornography possession is bad, sure. But it really seems like a lot of you feel so "Demoralized" you slap on an extra hundred of "reputation loss" statuses.
I guess hacking is not "Demoralizing" to your guys? It should be but I guess you people don't have businesses that you need to make sure someone doesn't hack into and ruin your life...?

Tutorial on how to tell everyone you're a shameless pedophile without actually saying it ^^^^^^

 

[Grmmish]

Er no. This guys hacks appear to have been round social engineering, some adult made a mistake disclosing information to him. With hacks the company is at least partly responsible for not doing it's best to protect access to their systems. Children don't have the same power or reasoning.

Well that is true. Sure damage he caused may be less than phenomenal. But to me hacking is hacking. Whether you hack into the pentagon or into a Zelda game's file system or something, I don't think the worst case scenario of child pornography can equal the worse case scenario of hacking. Worse case scenario of hacking is quite horrible... Worse case of Child pornography doesn't compare to entire multiples of families' lives being ruined.

I don't necessarily agree, I think exploiting children should be punished more, because it's just sick and people who create the crap deserve to be locked up for longer but I digress

What you're saying makes sense, it does. But it doesn't seem to hold up in my dictionary. (Which disregards morality and looks at the crime for what it is) It's like you're saying "being sick and breaking the law is worse than just breaking the law." When people go to jail because they break the law. Being sick is just tacked onto it to assume they would probably do it again and "need help". (And of course other reasons they mention "Being sick" even if that isn't necessarily the crime they have done)
It seems to me what you're saying is something similar to: "No matter how many men you torture, it will never equal a single child." ok.. Then what if there was only one child on earth and every single adult on the earth was victimized.
That's ok. But as soon as the child is victimized (The ONLY child.) it's bad/worse? The reason why I say "One" child is because the crime of child pornography is "For each victimized person" which equals a single person. The crime of hacking is "for each hack" which can equal, worse case scenario, everyone. Best case scenario, one or no one. (But how MANY people are not guaranteed in the crime of hacking since it is always different how many people are affected.)
To me they are both bad.
When you hack ONE company, that could be equivalent to ruining a few hundred lives, for example. For creating child pornography, you actually can only go from one child at a time. (Even if you, for example, abduct multiple children at once) So you'd have to create NUMEROUS of the same crimes to ruin numerous lives. You only have to do one hacking crime to ruin multiple lives. You do not agree with me and that is fine. But are my points invalid?

Tutorial on how to tell everyone you're a shameless pedophile without actually saying it ^^^^^^

Tutorial on how to disregard legitimate argument and put emotions before feeling without actually giving valid reasoning on why. LOL I don't know how you get "I'm a shameless pedophile" from what I'm saying.

 

[the_randomizer]

I don't care if people are hacking consoles to allow for homebrew, etc, but for company/server hacking just because "they can" and to brag/stroke their epeens online, yeah, people like that can piss up a rope.

 

[Ericzander]

Well that is true. Sure damage he caused may be less than phenomenal. But to me hacking is hacking. Whether you hack into the pentagon or into a Zelda game's file system or something, I don't think the worst case scenario of child pornography can equal the worse case scenario of hacking. Worse case scenario of hacking is quite horrible... Worse case of Child pornography doesn't compare to entire multiples of families' lives being ruined.

Stop right there. Take a deep look at what you just wrote. And please never reproduce.

Edit: And before you respond saying "heh he can't even tell me why I'm wrong." Think about the fact that if you're in this deep in your flawed logic that it would be pointless to try to argue with you.

 

[Mollycule]

I think what he tried to say was generally hacking is seen as a more top level threat of a crime, as opposed to domestic crime which doesn't pose a threat to capitalism.

Money > people apparently these days.

*shrugs*

 

[the_randomizer]

Bullshit, human lives being in jeopardy for the sick use of making porn far outweighs a company being hacked. Oh no, Nintendo got hacked, that's clearly more important than the lives of those who were exploited. Clearly.

Give me a fucking break

People are telling me that hacking is somehow worse than CP? Really? That's the dumbest bullshit I've heard, everyone who creates and is into CP deserves the heaviest sentence out there.

 

[Grmmish]

Stop right there. Take a deep look at what you just wrote. And please never reproduce.

Edit: And before you respond saying "heh he can't even tell me why I'm wrong." Think about the fact that if you're in this deep in your flawed logic that it would be pointless to try to argue with you.

Not looking to be proven wrong. I just want to hear you guys' valid opinions. Telling me to never reproduce and that my "logic is flawed" without any reason is no different than telling me "Apples are better than oranges. So please never reproduce since what you are saying makes no sense."

I think what he tried to say was generally hacking is seen as a more top level threat of a crime, as opposed to domestic crime which doesn't pose a threat to capitalism.

Money > people apparently these days.

*shrugs*

Finally. Someone with valid points.
Money isn't greater than people and I'm happy you saw what I said that way since that means you understand what I am saying a bit more than those around you.

I would think that being hacked into can ruin people's financial life, which can really cause a great depression era in their life which is very horrible. To me that is ruining a person's life. I was looking at it as "You DID ruin their lives... It's not about how MUCH you ruined it, it's ruined no different than the next person's." But in this logic, yes. Hacking definitely is far less of a crime than making child porn.

Bullshit, human lives being in jeopardy for the sick use of making porn far outweighs a company being hacked. Oh no, Nintendo got hacked, that's clearly more important than the lives of those who were exploited. Clearly.

Give me a fucking break

People are telling me that hacking is somehow worse than CP? Really? That's the dumbest bullshit I've heard, everyone who creates and is into CP deserves the heaviest sentence out there.

"Oh Nintendo got hacked" That's not what I'm saying. That's like saying "Oh someone fell." when I'm putting emphasis on "Someone fell AND broke their arm." It's not that they fell. It's that their arm is broken. So it's not that "Someone got hacked." It's "Someone got their families' lives put in a financial crisis which could really split them apart and do a lot of damage."
Yes. Someone that makes child porn should deserve such a heavy sentence. But my argument was on "Why". And saying "Oh. Nintendo got hacked" isn't really helping for reasons.

Again I'm looking for reasons and logic. Not to bicker back and forth with people who judge other humans based on what they want reasons to.

 

[smf]

Not looking to be proven wrong. I just want to hear you guys' valid opinions. Telling me to never reproduce and that my "logic is flawed" without any reason is no different than telling me "Apples are better than oranges. So please never reproduce since what you are saying makes no sense."

You are mistaking a purely subjective argument for one of common decency.

If you can show me someone whose life was ruined by a hack so they either get PTSD, commit suicide or were never able to have a stable relationship then you might go some way to make me believe you aren't just trolling.

Companies go bankrupt for many reasons, people lose jobs and they get over it. It's something you should learn from an early age to expect.

You shouldn't need to learn to accept child sexual exploitation.

 

[duwen]

Since he seems good enough to get in to Nintendo's servers I wonder if the porn was to blackmail people, dunno if that's be any better in his sentencing or not though.

Imagine if it turns out that's sort of the case, but he retrieved all the CP from Miyamoto's hdd?!
Just saying... I never trusted that sleazy fuck.

 

[Mollycule]

You are mistaking a purely subjective argument for one of common decency.

If you can show me someone whose life was ruined by a hack so they either get PTSD, commit suicide or were never able to have a stable relationship then you might go some way to make me believe you aren't just trolling.

Companies go bankrupt for many reasons, people lose jobs and they get over it. It's something you should learn from an early age to expect.

You shouldn't need to learn to accept child sexual exploitation.

For one there was this:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Madison_data_breach

You know it's true though, hacking is considered a bigger crime than CP by those in power, personally I think CP related activities are dirty and sick, but they aren't as disruptive and as dangerous to society as hacking is, end of.

 

[Ericthegreat]

For one there was this:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Madison_data_breach

You know it's true though, hacking is considered a bigger crime than CP by those in power, personally I think CP related activities are dirty and sick, but they aren't as disruptive and as dangerous to society as hacking is, end of.

I disagree, yes there are things like young gf videos and images, but you gotta remember there is cp made by the worst types of people there are.

 

[Mollycule]

I disagree, yes there are things like young gf videos and images, but you gotta remember there is cp made by the worst types of people there are.

Of course, the creators are fueling a problem, and it's one of the ugliest.

To me personally it is much worse than hacking, no matter the scale.

My argument is that those that we pay taxes to enforce public security care more about hacking than CP for the reasons mentioned previously.

 

[Grmmish]

You are mistaking a purely subjective argument for one of common decency.

If you can show me someone whose life was ruined by a hack so they either get PTSD, commit suicide or were never able to have a stable relationship then you might go some way to make me believe you aren't just trolling.

Companies go bankrupt for many reasons, people lose jobs and they get over it. It's something you should learn from an early age to expect.

You shouldn't need to learn to accept child sexual exploitation.

You have a point on your last line. As a person, we should grow and learn to get over losses and such. We should never need to "accept child sexual exploitation" or even know it exists.
But for you to say "Show me someone who got PTSD..." etc. from a hack?
Mannny cases. and it isn't about how many you've seen. Even if there were NO cases, it's still a possibility. Heck, what's his name who was the son of a successful ponzi-schemer killed himself becuase of shame what his father did in their family business. Sure it's not "Being hacked" but it is indeed similar.

Anyways I think I exhausted this enough. I guess when morality and what is considered decency, (all pretty much A.K.A. emotionally-based decision making) it is indeed difficult to put emotions and such aside to have that kind of argument. But there were some very nice points made by you guys.
----------

What's up with that, though? TheCruel being some Child Porn guy and now this guy? LOL It would have been funny if he was an idiot enough to have been bragging about his "Collection" as well. xD

Also why do people keep porn on their computers, let alone "indecent" porn. Seriously. Do these people really value those images that much? Honestly, even if it was standard pornography, why even keep it on their computer... Weird people.
You think the people who take these images and share them keep them on their computers?

*Shivers* Yeah let's not even go down that road. XD


And now I wonder....
It's not... Illegal to make child porn games?
NOT saying it's a good thing, but perhaps these people will keep to themselves and stop hurting others and enjoy their little oblong fantasy if they were busy playing some VR game or something. IDK.

 

[DJPlace]

Maybe he becomes an A-Hole in full right in his new hotel. But in his A-Hole things might come in and out... Repeatedly. And the bigger the better. And hard.

I hope he screams, bleeds and suffers.

i swear i wish i can post this one classic image. but i would get in trouble even if i spoiler it.

 

[Mollycule]

When you have religions that support marriage of minors, and popes that engage in the worst cases child abuse who are being protected because to reveal one crime brings up the rest involved, it is simply too dangerous to attack that front without destabilising the structural integrity of people trusting their leaders.

For example, what if it were to come out that Trump or the Clintons have involvement in such inhumane activities?

 

[smf]

But for you to say "Show me someone who got PTSD..." etc. from a hack?
Mannny cases. and it isn't about how many you've seen. Even if there were NO cases, it's still a possibility.

You existing could make someone have PTSD and suicidal. It hasn't happened yet, but it's still a possibility. Therefore you are worse than everything and should be locked up to protect us all right?

So please, show me a hack that has caused as much damage as CSE. Just evidence of one person who's life was ruined by a hack would be enough to rescue your argument from being a troll.

For one there was this:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Madison_data_breach

Their wives/husbands/girfriends/boyfriends were always going to find out about their cheating. You could argue that the hack saved a lot of people who were being cheated on.

 

[Mollycule]

You existing could make someone have PTSD and suicidal. It hasn't happened yet, but it's still a possibility. Therefore you are worse than everything and should be locked up to protect us all right?

So please, show me a hack that has caused as much damage as CSE. Just evidence of one person who's life was ruined by a hack would be enough to rescue your argument from being a troll.



Their wives/husbands/girfriends/boyfriends were always going to find out about their cheating. You could argue that the hack saved a lot of people who were being cheated on.

You have a point, but the manner that the hackers disclosed the data was supposedly done in a way that was brutal enough for some of the cheaters to take their own lives as a result.

 

[smf]

You have a point, but the manner that the hackers disclosed the data was supposedly done in a way that was brutal enough for some of the cheaters to take their own lives as a result.

They got found out. What makes you say it was done in a way that was brutal? How brutal was cheating on their partners?

We were discussing hacking into companies like Nintendo though.

The Travelex hack is probably the biggest one at the moment, which is much worse than the Nintendo hack.