COURT DOC: California Hacker Who Stole Proprietary Information From Nintendo Sentenced To Three Years In Prison

A 21-year-old Palmdale, California, man was sentenced to three years in prison today in U.S. District Court in Seattle for federal crimes related to his computer hacking scheme and his possession of child pornography found on his digital devices, announced U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran. RYAN S. HERNANDEZ, aka Ryan West, who used the online moniker ‘RyanRocks,’ pleaded guilty to a two-count information in January 2020.

According to records filed in the case, in 2016, while still a minor, HERNANDEZ and an associate used a phishing technique to steal credentials of a Nintendo employee, which were exploited to gain access to and download confidential Nintendo files related to its consoles and games. That stolen information, including pre-release information about the anticipated Nintendo Switch console, was leaked to the public. In October 2017, following an investigation into the hack, FBI agents contacted HERNANDEZ and his parents at their California residence. HERNANDEZ promised to stop any further malicious activity and confirmed that he understood the consequences of any future hacking.

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 ‘Ryans 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. (Source: U.S. Department of Justice)