An American from the state of California has announced that he hacked into the Nintendo network a few years ago and stole company data. The man thus obtained, among other things, information about the Switch console that was still unreleased at the time.

According to the US Department of Justice, the 21-year-old man, Ryan Hernandez, has declared guilt for both hacking Nintendo systems in 2016 and owning child pornography. On April 21, the judge ruled on the case, noting that Hernandez was still a minor during the hack.

Hernandez gained access to Nintendo systems via phishing, although the Ministry of Justice does not tell which method was used. After decrypting the login details of a Nintendo employee, he was given access to systems that contained trade secrets, including the Switch not yet released at the time.

Incidentally, the FBI Hernandez was already on the trail in 2017, warning him not to undertake any further illegal activities. Nevertheless, he broke into Nintendo systems again in 2018 and 2019, after which the FBI invaded his home and seized devices.

The prosecutors demanded a 3-year prison sentence, and Hernandez also agreed to pay $ 259,323 as compensation to Nintendo.